


A Change in Regime

by Silencium1, Slayerite



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Female Chara (Undertale), Flavor Text Narrator Chara (Undertale), Gen, Ghost Chara (Undertale), Goat Dad Is Best Dad (Undertale), Goat Mom Is Best Mom (Undertale), Male Frisk (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-29
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-07-04 05:17:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15834498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silencium1/pseuds/Silencium1, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slayerite/pseuds/Slayerite
Summary: Everyone knows the story of the tragedy of the royal children, of how Asgore declares war on humanity in his grief.But what if things had went another direction in the last few moments of Asriel's life?Watch how much the Underground has diverged from the original concept, and what the choices made long ago have changed the Underground, for better or for worse.Decisions will be made, and battles will be fought, because, after all...The fate of the Underground rests upon the shoulders of the Red-Souled Child.





	1. A Change in the Beginning

Frisk propped himself up on his arms with a groan, rubbing his backside to ebb away the pain. Opening his eyes, Frisk takes in his surroundings.

Well. When he was wandering the mountainside, he did not expect to find a nice cave to stumble into, maybe live the rest of his life in. All those plans went tumbling (heh) when a hole seemed to materialize from the darkness, taking him whole.

Apparently, the hole Frisk fell into seemed to house yet another cave system, possibly one that no one else has ever been in before. And had flowers as well? Frisk looks down, and discovered what broke his fall.

Flowers. Ones like in the center of his town. Those ones were thought to be the last ones on Earth, but apparently that’s untrue, if there are some down here as well.

“Great. Another human has fallen yet again,” a voice says out of nowhere, “The humans should’ve learned to block off this cursed mountain by now.”

“Hello?” Frisk calls out, unsure on what to say to a voice that just popped up in his head.

“No one is going to hear you, nitwit,” the same voice says in a bored monotone.

“What about you?” Frisk tried asking stupidly.

“Wait, what?!” the voice says, and Frisk feels a pulling sensation in his chest.

Frisk feels a popping sensation in the same area, and soon after, a person materializes just beside the center of his vision. It appears to be a transparent pale girl roughly his age, wearing a green shirt with a single yellow stripe across the middle. Her hair was auburn, what appeared to be a natural blush was on her cheeks and eyes the color of chocolate.

 

“How can you hear me? No other human that has fallen down here has ever heard me, and now suddenly someone can see me?” the girl asked, walking up to Frisk and looking over him, hands on her hips.

 

“I-I don’t know,” Frisk stammers out, looking down, “I was just wandering into a cave, fell, and next thing I knew I was waking up.”

 

The girl only sighs, and turns around, walking towards an old entrance to the east. “Whatever. Now that I’m… back,” she grimaces, “I should be able to-” she stops abruptly just before the entrance, as if running into a wall. “What? No, no!” she shouts, pounding her fists on the ‘invisible wall’.

 

Frisk smirks slightly. “Well, looks like you’re stuck with me, princess.”

 

The girl turns toward Frisk, cheeks slightly darkened with more blush. “I’m not a- argh! Why can’t I go any further?!” she begins hitting the unseen barrier.

 

“I dunno,” Frisk says, shrugging and standing up. The girl seems to wobble a bit, as if the boundaries shifted with his movement.

 

“Wait- walk towards me,” she orders Frisk, to which he complies. She takes a few cautious steps, before ‘hitting’ the ‘wall’ again.

 

The two repeat the process a few more times, in which by the end of it, the girl has a horrorstruck expression. “Oh no, this can’t be happening! Of all things I could be bound to, it’s a human!”

 

“Yeah, well looks like you’ll have to get used to it, sweetheart,” Frisk replies, winking at her.

 

“Argh! Just get your butt over here! I think I see something.” the girl almost screams, and Frisk walks over to her.

 

When Frisk turns the corner, both he and the girl are surprised to see, of all things, a smiling flower in the center of the room.

 

“That’s strange,” the girl says, putting a finger to her chin. “I do not remember seeing any flower Monsters before.”

 

“Howdy! I’m Flowey. Flowey the Flower!” the flower, or rather, Flowey, states. Frisk just looks at him, dumbstruck.

 

“Um, hi?” Frisk asks, unsure on how to proceed.

 

“Oh, golly! No other human that has fallen down here has ever replied to little old me. They just stood there with dumb expressions on their dumb faces. One even drooled a bit! Can you even believe that?” Flowey looks down as if in memory, and shakes his head. “What a bunch of idiots.”

 

Frisk frowns. “Well, that’s not a very nice thing to say about other people.”

 

The girl shrugs a shoulder. “Well, that’s other humans for you.”

 

Flowey looks back up at Frisk, a smile plastered onto his face(?). “Well, anywho, you’re new to the Underground, aren't cha? And since I’m the only one around here, I guess that little old me will have to do for now. Ready?”

 

Frisk rubs his right arm, “For what?”

 

Flowey winks, sticking out a tongue. “Why, ready for this, silly!” and with that, a red heart comes from out of Frisk’s chest.

 

“Whoa, what is that?” Frisk asks, reaching a hand out toward the heart.

 

“Don’t touch that!” the girl says. “You should not touch the very essence of your being!”

 

Flowey apparently can’t see the girl, because he does not heed to her warning Frisk, continuing what he was saying. “See that heart?” he appears to pause a bit at the sight, as if remembering a distant memory, before shaking it off. “That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being! Your Soul starts off weak, but with more intent, it can become stronger!”

 

“How could it become stronger through intent?” Frisk asks, still mesmerized by the sight of his Soul.

 

“Why, LOVE, of course!” Flowey states, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, but then his expression turns serious. “The higher your LOVE is, the stronger you become! But if your LOVE becomes too high, you might become a little, heh, crazy,” Flowey says, expression becoming slightly guilty for some reason, then brightens back up. “Well! With some people, LOVE is shared through little white… ‘friendliness pellets’,” several oval shaped things appear around him. “You want at least a little bit of LOVE, don’t you?” the pellets go toward Frisk. “Go on, catch as many as you can!”

 

“Human, wait- don’t touch any of the bull-” the girl begins to tell Frisk, but too late, he gets a SOULful of bullets.

 

Flowey’s expression becomes what could only be described as smug. “Wow! You must be a bigger idiot than I thought, for you to be so trusting of what those bullets would do to a human!”

 

A figure comes in from the side, in the shadows, a stern look on their darkened face as they look at Flowey. “Flowey, what did we tell you about harming newcomers?”

 

Flowey’s expression shifts to one of sheepishness. “To… to not to?”

 

“Good, you still remembered. Please move along, and we shall continue talking later.”

 

Flowey puts on a pout. “Do we have to?”

 

“Yes, we do. Move along.”

 

Once Flowey burrows into the ground, Frisk looks up at the figure, who has stepped into the light and healed him. Standing in front of Frisk was a large creature, which kind of resembled a goat, except with very fluffy ears, a blond beard, and wearing faded purple robes.

 

“Dad?” the girl asks in a confused -and slightly hurt- voice.

 

“Howdy! I am Asgore, one of the caretakers of the Ruins,” he looks at the spot Flowey disappeared from. “Sorry that I took so long to get here, and that you had to meet Flowey first. He is usually on good behavior, but he tends to do that to newcomers of the Underground. Do not mind him, as I can assure you that he will only do that to you this one time.”

 

Asgore turns toward the entrance of the Ruins, then turns his head to look at Frisk. “Please, follow me if you will.”

 

Frisk follows Asgore toward the entrance of the Ruins. The movement of the unseen barrier moving the girl seems to shock her out of her stupor, and she looks at Asgore, “Dad?”

 

No response.

 

“Dad!” the girl said louder, running ahead and waving her hand in front of Asgore’s face. He does not even blink, or give any hint of acknowledgement whatsoever. Frisk gives her a strange look. “He… he can’t see me.”

 

They enter the Ruins through another archway, and the room beyond is filled with red leaves, and with rows of golden flowers along the edges of the leaves.

 

Frisk peeks around from behind Asgore, and spots a small yellow star, twinkling at the base of the stairs. He points in its direction, and asks “What’s that star thing?”

 

“Oh!” Asgore says, and walks up to it. “You must be wondering about this. I do not know what it is, but it does look nice. Lights up the place, too!” he then turns thoughtful, “They’re strange. Those stars appeared the same day Flowey first came to us. But excuse me, we have to keep going!”

 

Frisk walks up to the star and cups his hands beneath it. Suddenly, a hot but pleasant sensation fills his entire being, most of the feeling in his chest.

 

The girl, slightly dazed from Asgore’s lack of acknowledgement, walks up next to Frisk, and says in his ear “*The sight of such beautiful scenery in a place of ruin fills you with determination.”

 

Frisk looks at her curiously, but not wanting to keep Asgore waiting, climbs the stairs and enters the next room, the girl following behind him.

 

As Frisk enters the next room, Asgore begins talking. “As it is customary to say, welcome to your new home, young one.”

 

“Great, puzzles,” the girl mumbles, crossing her arms and looking at her feet sullenly.

 

“This is a puzzle, made to slow others and act as keys,” Asgore says, walking towards a button on the ground.

 

At that moment, vines slither out of the ground next to the buttons, pressing them, and another vine clicking the switch next to the door. Frisk flinches, yelping and falling onto his rear end.

 

“Ah. It appears that Flowey is feeling just a tad bit sorry for what he did to you earlier, so he wants to make it up to you,” Asgore says, “This is already good progress, but he should not do this too much, as you can’t always rely on others to do puzzles for you,” he says, then walks into the next room.

 

Frisk and the girl walk after Asgore, entering yet another room lined with various flowers. Frisk spots a sign in front of him, and walks up to it.

 

‘If you can read this, then congratulations! You are literate!’ the sign says. The girl gives a snort of laughter behind Frisk.

 

“Now, in preparation for humans, instructions have been written next to the switches to help,” Asgore says, walking to the end of the room, “Can you please pull the correct ones?”

 

Frisk walks up to the first switch, looking at the message beside it. The girl follows him, squinting at it, and says under her breath “*‘Please flick this switch’. The person’s name is too smudged to read, and you have a feeling that this is not Asgore’s handwriting.”

 

Frisk nods, gulping, and walks to the next labeled switch, flicking it. The spikes, which he noticed were very blunt, as if someone had filed them down. He walks into the next room with Asgore.

 

Asgore clears his throat. “Now, as you have experienced with Flowey, when you encounter a Monster, there is a chance you will be pulled into a FIGHT. Do not hesitate to defend yourself though if they send attacks at you. Please stall for time with the dummy behind me.”

 

“Um,” Frisk says, looking around Asgore, seeing no dummy in sight, “What dummy?”

 

Asgore turns around, frowning. “Oh dear, it appears that the dummy is not on duty now,” he turns back to Frisk, “I guess I’ll have to do for now,” he notices Frisk’s troubled expression, before saying “Do not fear, young one. I promise I won’t attack you, and you can SPARE me then.”

 

Asgore pulls Frisk’s SOUL out, the area around them dimming.

 

“Now, just do something to show that you do not wish any harm towards me, and we shall continue,” Asgore says.

 

“Uh… uh…” Frisk says, not knowing what to do.

 

“*Asgore Dreemurr, 80 ATK, 80 DEF. The king of all pushovers, you assume,” the girl says, sounding bored while resting her head on a hand.

 

“Um,” Frisk says, but couldn’t think of anything to say, so he gives a small wave.

 

“*You couldn’t think of anything to say, so you wave at him instead. Asgore seems pleased with you, and is SPAREing you,” the girl says.

 

“I SPARE you?” Frisk says, unsure. Those seemed to be the magic words, as the room immediately brightens.

 

“Very good, young one. Let us proceed,” Asgore says, walking into the next room, Frisk following behind.

 

This room is filled with flowers of various species, with a lightened path in front, though it appears to have been in disuse for a long time.

 

“Why does that look so faded?” Frisk asks, tugging on Asgore’s sleeve and pointing at the path.

 

“Oh! Well, we deemed some puzzles to be too dangerous, so we have taken some precautions to avoid some of them altogether. We do not want any human to get hurt down here, in any case,” Asgore explains, “Like the puzzle just up ahead. Here, take my hand.”

 

The girl appears slightly hopeful, while Frisk scrunches up his eyebrows as he holds Asgore’s big paw. “Who do you mean by ‘we’?”

 

Asgore just smiles. “You will learn soon enough, child.”

 

He leads Frisk into a narrow pathway, then a more open area, with water around the room. There are a bunch of spikes, with a path that has no spikes and fences blocking off the unsafe spikes, even though even those ones were filed down as well.

 

Once the two (technically three) make it across the room, they head into the next room, which appears to be a long hallway.

 

“Now, you have done well so far. I have one more thing to ask of you: make it across this hallway without me,” Asgore says, “I hope you can manage that.”

 

Frisk gives a look of confusion, but Asgore is out of his sight faster than he thought. Panicking a bit, Frisk frantically looks around himself.

 

The girl nudges Frisk in the back. “Get going. You heard what he said. No need to be a baby.”

 

Frisk nods, and gulping, walks across the hallway. He comes to a stop next to a pillar, where Asgore comes out from behind it.

 

“Very good, young one! I’m sorry that I had to do that. It was merely a test of independence, which could come in handy someday,” Asgore says, “However, I must leave to get some things ready, so you will have to be alone for a while. But worry not! I shall give you something, so that you can ask me anything,” he pulls out an old phone, “Here. Feel free to call any time!” and with that, leaves the room.

 

* * *

 

 

“What’s your name?” the girl asks Frisk a few minutes later, who is sitting on the ground playing around on the phone.

 

“Why do you want to know my name?” Frisk asks, “You do not seem to like me very much.”

 

The girl leans on the pillar somehow, and frowns, “You’re right about that. But, seeing how we’re… linked, it would be good to learn your name.”

 

“Can you tell me your name in exchange?” Frisk asks in return.

 

“My name does not matter. At least anymore,” the girl replies, looking away.

 

Frisk smirks, “Your name matters to me, beautiful,” and he winks.

 

The girl’s face immediately reddens. “Really? You had to flirt just now?!”

 

“Then tell me your name, sunshine.”

 

“Only if you stop. Flirting. With. ME!”

 

Frisk laughs, “Okay, fine. My name is Frisk. What is yours?”

 

The girl pauses, and takes a deep breath (as if she needed any, mind you), saying in a small voice “Chara.”

 

“Well, I would say that’s quite a beautiful name,” Frisk says, nodding at her.

 

Chara gives a small smile, and opens her mouth to say something, but is quickly interrupted.

 

“Well, now that you’re finished talking with your imaginary friend,  _ Frisk _ , I’d suggest that you get a move on!” Flowey says, burrowing up in front of Frisk.

 

Frisk yelps, and quickly pushes himself as far away from Flowey as he could.

 

“What are  _ you _ doing here after what you did to Frisk?” Chara shouts at Flowey, but as figured, she might as well had shouted at the air.

 

Flowey just chuckles at Frisk. “Look, kid. I did not truly mean to hurt you back there. I was just seeing if you’d fall for my little schtick. It’s mostly to gauge how likely you’ll die down here.”

 

“How can I tell that you’re telling the truth, rather than trying to gain my trust?” Frisk asks, skepticism written all over his face. Chara shares the same expression.

 

“You’ll just have to trust me on that, but I digress. You should be going. Explore! Do some puzzles! Anything! Just don’t stay in this room for eternity!” Flowey says, sprouting small leaves to emphasize with gestures, but after the sentence, the leaves shrivel and fall off. Flowey does not seem to care.

 

“Okay, I will,” Frisk says, then realizes something. “Wait, how did you know my name?”

 

Flowey winks, “Why, Frisk! I was behind the pillar as you told your imaginary friend your name!”

 

“I am NOT an imaginary friend!” Chara shouts at Flowey, breathing heavily.

 

“Well, see you around!” Flowey says, then burrows into the ground.

 

“You heard what he said. Get up!” Chara says, grabbing Frisk and somehow pulls him to his feet.

 

“How can you do that?” Frisk asks, looking at Chara.

 

“Don’t care at the moment. Let’s just leave this place,” she replies, pushing Frisk into the next room.

 

After he crossed the threshold of the room, his phone began ringing, and Frisk picked it up. “Hello?”

 

“Howdy. This is Asgore. I trust that you have not left the hallway, now have you?”

 

“Uh…” Frisk says, unable to tell Asgore if he left the room.

 

“Well, I suppose it does not matter. Every other human that has fallen down here has, at some point, has already left the room. So, I suppose it would be more appropriate to tell you that I’ll see you when you arrive here,” Asgore chuckles. The line goes dead.

 

“Hey, one of those stars!” Chara shouts, pointing ahead. Frisk looks up from his phone, and sure enough, there is a small yellow star.

 

“I do like how they make me feel,” Frisk says, walking towards it. He cups his hands beneath it.

 

“*Learning the name of your ghostly companion fills you with Determination,” Chara says in a cheerful voice.

 

“Why do you do that?” Frisk asks, tilting his head at her while walking toward the next room.

 

“Do what?” Chara asks back, frowning.

 

“Narrate what I do. Why do you do that?” Frisk asks, and stops at the edge of what appears to be unstable ground.

 

“Oh, that,” she replies, looking away, “I used to do that when I was desperately bored, and wanted slight entertainment.”

 

“How would that be-” Frisk begins, walking across the cracks, but a hole appeared in the ground.

 

“Frisk?!” Chara shouts, and is immediately pulled flat to the floor. A few moments later, she looks up and sees Frisk climbing out of a slot in the wall. She then stands back up, needlessly brushing herself off, before saying outright “You could have died!”

 

Frisk shrugs. “Wasn’t that bad. There were pillows to cushion my fall.”

 

Chara covers her mouth as she snorts. “Did you really just say that?”

 

“Yes, did you not hear me?” he replies, sounding confused, but then what he said clicked in his mind, making him begin to giggle, “Oh my gosh, I did not mean to make that joke!”

 

“Yeah, well you said it anyway,” Chara says, wiping her eyes of tears, “But seriously, we should get going.”

 

“Okay,” Frisk says as soon as his giggles stop.

 

As soon as Frisk steps into the room, he gets another call from Asgore. “Hello?” he asks into the receiver.

 

“Howdy, this is Asgore once again. I have to ask you: for no reason in particular, do you prefer Golden Flower Tea, or Herbal Tea?”

 

“Say Golden Flower,” Chara whispers into Frisk’s ear.

 

“Uh, Golden Flower?” he says, not certain on why she requested that particular tea.

 

“Alright, then,” Asgore replies, and Frisk hears an additional indistinguishable voice in the background, before Asgore then asks “Another thing for no particular reason: do you prefer cinnamon or butterscotch?”

 

Frisk says “Butterscotch!” at the same time as Chara shouts “Cinnamon!” Frisk looks at her weirdly, while Chara just scoffs at his preference, turning her head away from him.

 

“I see. Well then, see you soon!” Asgore says before hanging up.

 

Chara tugs onward at Frisk’s hands once Asgore hangs up. “Come on, let’s get going!”

 

Frisk shrugs. “Whatever you say,-”

 

Chara presses her hand to his mouth, shooting a pointed glare toward him. “Do not. Flirt. With me.”

 

* * *

 

 

Several rooms later, Frisk brushes himself off as he gets up from the pillows softening his fall. “Better not be another Vegetoid,” he mumbles to no one in particular.

 

He hears Chara fall into the hole after him, landing on her feet with only slight wobbling. “Better them than getting another Spider Donut,” she says, smirking.

 

“Not that again,” Frisk groans, looking in the direction of the exit.

 

Chara looks at something on the ground, and begins giggling. “Okay, but only if you wear that!” she says, pointing at the ground. Frisk looks at where her hands are aiming.

 

On the ground, there is a straw cowboy hat collecting dust. With curious eyes, Frisk picks it up and twirls it in his hands, looking at it at every angle.

 

“*Cowboy Hat: +4 DEF. Upon closer inspection, it appears to be a cowgirl hat,” Chara whispers in Frisk’s ear in an amused tone.

 

“Nuh-uh,” Frisk says, twirling it twice and plopping it into the mess known as his hair. He looks at Chara with a big, dopey grin on his face.

 

Chara rolls her eyes at him. “You’re so moronic.”

 

“What? Cowboys are cool,” Frisk answers, beginning to climb back up.

 

“Whatever you say,” Chara retorts, climbing behind Frisk. She takes a look around the room after she gets her feet on the ground. “Well, using the amazing power of deduction, I would say that that hole over there is the one with the switch in it.”

 

“Wow, really?” Frisk says in a sarcastic tone. He walks over to the cracks and falls in, Chara quickly following.

 

“Took you long enough,” Chara says, “But you know, you could’ve just asked me for the solution.”

 

Frisk stares at her where he is from on the ladder. “Seriously?!”

 

“What?” Chara asks as if she was not at fault, “You didn’t ask me. Plus, it was fun watching you struggle.”

 

“Hmph,” Frisk says, rapidly climbing the ladder. He steps out of the slot and walks toward the next room.

 

“This one’s easy. Just flick the switch that the sign directs you to use,” Chara supplies, “You don’t have to pull one in this room, though.”

 

Three switch flicks later, Frisk is standing at a crossroads, several species of flowers lining the walls and leaves. He turns to Chara. “Which direction should I go?”

 

Chara ponders whether or not if she should answer. “You should go east first. Who knows, there might be worth something to look at.”

 

“Whatever you say,” Frisk says, walking forward and taking a left past a Froggit.

 

The sight past the doorway was something to behold. A purple city stretched out rather far into the cavern, but from what he could see, there were hundreds of buildings, parapets atop buildings, and multiple glassless windows.

 

“This is amazing,” Frisk breathed out, “What is this place?”

 

“The old city of Home. You think this is amazing? You should’ve seen it when almost everyone lived here,” Chara says, and looks down, “Oh look!”

 

“What?” Frisk asks, taking his eyes off of Home.

 

“This,” Chara replies, and toes something on the ground. Frisk looks at her feet.

 

Sitting at her feet lies a small revolver, collecting dust as well. Frisk picks it up and looks it over.

 

“Sweet!” he exclaims, looking at the grip, “Now I can become something like a sheriff around here!”

 

“*Empty Gun: +4 ATK. An old revolver. More useful for intimidation,” Chara states, then mumbles under her breath “Luckily, it has no bullets.”

 

“Who cares?! It’s a freaking gun!” Frisk enthuses, sticking it into his front left pocket. “Let’s go!”

 

The two leave the balcony overlooking Home, and go back to the crossroads, heading north this time.

 

“Oh dear,” Asgore’s voice comes from behind the big tree in front of Frisk. “It took me a lot longer to get the tea going than I thought. I wonder how the human is doing?” He comes out from behind the tree, and notices Frisk. “Oh, you are here already?” He walks over to Frisk. “Well, that is no matter. Come, let’s go inside.”

 

Frisk (and Chara, by extension) follows Asgore to the door, where he spots a yellow star. Like the past few times, Frisk cups his hands beneath the star.

 

“*The scent of tea and butterscotch with cinnamon permeates the air… It fills you with Determination,” Chara says, “Let’s head inside.”

 

Frisk agrees, and walks into the house. Asgore is standing in front of him. “Welcome to your new home, young one,” he turns to the west, “Please, follow me again. There is someone I want you to meet,” and he walks into the next room, with Frisk following.

 

In what appears to be a living room, there is another Monster sitting in an armchair while reading a book. This new Monster appears similar to Asgore, but looks more feminine, with short horns and a smaller frame overall. Chara gasps at the Monster. “Mom?” she gasps.

 

“Tori,” the Monster looks up at Asgore, “The young one has arrived.”

 

“Oh, is that so?” she replies, closing her book and walking over to Asgore, then looks at Frisk, smiling. “Greetings, innocent one. I am Toriel, the other caretaker of the Ruins.”

 

“Ah, I guess it would be time that I took my leave, then,” Asgore says, turning around.

 

“I do believe that you have earned yourself a rest, Gorey,” Toriel says, looking at Asgore, who leaves the room. She then turns back to Frisk. “Now, the pie and tea are too hot to have right now, so I would suggest that you turn in for the night, for trekking the Ruins without supervision,” she gives a disapproving look, “can be quite draining on young bodies, I believe,” Frisk nods, feeling tired at the moment. “Well, give me your hand, and I shall escort you to your new room.”

 

Frisk takes her hand (with Chara appearing to be in a stupor, running on autopilot), and follows Toriel into a hallway, stopping at the first door to the left. “This will be your new room, little one. We hope you will like it,” she says, and begins fondly patting his hair. “Is something burning?” she turns back to Frisk, “Make yourself at home, as well,” before running off.

 

Frisk looks at the door, then at Chara, before deciding to push her form into the bedroom. He shuts the door with moderate force, and Chara appears to be snapped out of her stupor.

 

“Huh?” she says, rubbing her head absentmindedly.

 

“I’m going to sleep. Wanna join?” Frisk asks, patting his hand next to himself on the bed.

 

“What?! No!” she snaps, “I’m  _ dead _ , and the dead need no sleep… right?” she got a sudden wave of exhaustion, causing her to wobble on her feet, but regains her balance. “What? I just felt tired. How is that… possible?”

 

“Dunno, but we should think about that in the morning,” Frisk says and flops onto the bed.

 

A few minutes later, the sounds of his soft snores fill the room. Chara just sits beside the bed, fighting off the sudden drowsiness that is threatening to overtake her. In truth, she would like the bed, but felt it was wrong for her to use it after what she did to  _ him _ .

 

Sighing, Chara presses herself as much as she could against the bed, and closes her eyes.

 

A blanket and pillow fall onto the floor. Chara opens her eyes as they fall through her, and her form slightly rising to be on top of the blankets and pillow. She looks at the bed.

 

Frisk has apparently tossed off all but one blanket off of the bed in his sleep.

 

Smiling slightly, she lies her head on the pillow and curls up on the blankets.

 

Frisk might be annoying to her with the additional flaw of being a human, but he still has his advantages for her.

 

Chara closes her eyes yet again, promising to herself to open them in a few minutes.


	2. A Change in Reasoning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk asks what lies beyond the Ruins
> 
> It ends badly for him

Frisk wakes up to the feeling of Chara jumping onto his back and shouting into his ear “Get up you lazy butt!”

 

“Wha-?” Frisk says, and in his still half-asleep state, flails his arms around, narrowly missing Chara several times before becoming unbalanced and falling to the floor with a small thud.

 

“Hahaha! Oh my god! That was so _hilarious_!” Chara laughs, clutching her sides hard.

 

“No it wasn’t!” Frisk whines, standing up. He then steps up to the bed and give Chara a playful push on the shoulder. She does not let down her laughter.

 

“Not my fault at how easily spooked you appear to be when being woken up,” she replies, wiping a tear from her eye.

 

Giving a slight pout, Frisk turns around, and spots something at the bottom of his vision, looking down.

 

There, in the middle of the room, was a cup of golden-colored tea and a slice of pie, aromas softly wafting into the air. Frisk picks them up and inspects them, as Chara stops laughing, and walks over to him.

 

“*Butterscotch Pie. There is a bit of cinnamon mixed in as well,” Chara says, and when Frisk begins inspecting the tea, she says “*Golden Flower Tea. All lesser teas shall bow before it.”

 

“And what about their healing stuff?” Frisk asks, somehow shoving both items into his pockets.

 

Chara scoffs. “What are you, dumb? They both will max out your HP.”

 

“Well, excuse me for not knowing how things are down here,” Frisk mumbles, walking to the toy box and looking into it.

 

“*Look at all these toys! They’re way out of your age range, though,” Chara says, walking behind Frisk.

 

“Yuck,” Frisk says, tossing a baby’s toy back into the box.

 

“Now can you get a move on? I don’t want to spend the rest of eternity narrating every little thing you check in the room because you take too long,” Chara asks, wanting to get out of the room as soon as possible with nervous energy.

 

“Hold on, I just want want to get myself acquainted with this room before leaving,” Frisk says, making a move towards some of the other places of interest in the room.

 

“The wardrobe has many striped shirts, there’s a very dusty picture frame on the dresser, and none of those shoes will fit you,” Chara says, pointing at each object of interest, “Now we can leave.”

 

“You forgot this,” Frisk says, walking toward a box in the corner.

 

“What?” Chara says, stepping over to Frisk, and crouching next to him, “Open it.”

 

Frisk obeys, and when he manages to open the box, both he and Chara are confused at what it contains. Frisk picks up one of the objects.

 

“*It’s a box filled with bone-shaped bullets,” Chara says, and tilts her head to more easily read a note that fell from the box flap, “*There’s a note that says ‘HAVE FUN’, written in Papyrus font.”

 

“Papyrus font?” Frisk asks, furrowing his eyebrows, “Who the heck writes in fonts?”

 

“Skeleton Monsters are the only ones who write in font names,” Chara taps her chin, “So there must be a Papyrus running around the Ruins who occasionally visits the house.”

 

“Seriously?” Frisk asks incredulously, closing the box flaps and standing up, “Who would even name a child after a font?”

 

“Again, skeleton Monsters,” Chara says, “Now leave the room before I get even more bored.”

 

Frisk, intending to spite her, walks to the bedroom door as slowly as he could.

 

“Argh!” Chara grumbles, and begins to push on Frisk’s back, making him stutter his footsteps a bit before he goes to normal speed. “Just move faster!”

 

“Alright, alright,” Frisk mumbles. He then rushes to the door, slips through the door, and quickly closes the door behind him.

 

Dull ghostly thuds are heard against the door as Chara shouts “Let me out you big turd!”

 

“No,” Frisk says, sticking out his tongue, “And besides, if you’re a ghost, then couldn’t you just phase through the door?”

 

“No!” Chara shouts in exasperation, “In case you haven’t noticed by yesterday OR my poundings on the door, then apparently I can’t phase through things for whatever reason!”

 

“Well, I guess it sucks to be you,” Frisk says, walking out of the hallway.

 

“Wait, Frisk! What-” Chara begins saying, but her voice becomes too muffled to hear through the door or wall.

 

Several steps into the foyer, Frisk feels as if he walked into water, with how slow his movements were becoming. Gritting his teeth, Frisk pushes onward, movements continuing to slow down with each step.

 

Frisk walks into the living room, beginning to breathe heavily. Toriel is in the rocking chair, and when she sees how much Frisk is struggling, she is at his side in two seconds flat.

 

“My child, breathe,” Toriel says to Frisk, who nods his head and begins to cough.

 

Asgore walks into the room from the kitchen, holding a cup of tea. “What is going on?”

 

“I do not know,” Toriel says, rubbing circles onto Frisk’s back, “He was already like this when he walked into the room.”

 

“Hmm, let me see if I can see about anything,” Asgore says, setting his tea onto the table and walking next to Toriel, crouching down. “Now, where did this begin to happen?”

 

Frisk couldn’t summon the strength or breath to point to the foyer, but that wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

 

In the matter of seconds, with the sensation of a tether snapping and an uncorking sensation in his SOUL, Chara appeared behind him, the two children ungracefully stumbling and collapsing to the floor. Asgore and Toriel look at Frisk with both confusion and concern, but slight relief at Frisk’s breathing returning to normal.

 

“Tried, warning you, about, the barrier thing,” Chara pants, even though she clearly does not need to.

 

“Shut, up,” Frisk said under his breath in Chara’s direction.

 

“What was that you said, my child?” Toriel asks, leaning her head in Frisk’s direction.

 

“Nothing,” Frisk quickly said, “Just talking to my friend.”

 

“Friend?” Toriel says, “I do not see anyone else in the room other than the three of us.”

 

“Well, she’s a ghost that apparently only I can see. Her name is Cha- ah!” Frisk says, but feels a sharp tug on his hair.

 

“Tell them my name, and I will make sure I ‘get caught’ on every wall for the rest of our time together,” Chara hisses in Frisk’s ear. He just gives a small nod in return, to which Chara releases her grip on his hair.

 

Toriel looks at Frisk with a concerned expression on her muzzle. Frisk only rubs the base of the hairs that were pulled on and says “Nevermind, she doesn’t want me to tell you her name.”

 

“Oh,” Toriel says, unsure on how to respond. Truthfully, she thought that Frisk had an imaginary friend, but said nothing of the sort to him to attempt to not upset him.

 

“Well, if she doesn’t want you to tell us her name right now, then you should listen to her,” Asgore states, quickly catching on, “However, there are a few things we should discuss first.”

 

“Oh, right,” Toriel says, standing up, and helping Frisk to his feet as well, “Well, the first thing we’d like to tell you is that we both are very happy that you are here with us, now. For it has been a while since a human has been down here.”

 

“Yes it has,” Asgore says, running a paw through his beard, “Though, breakfast will be prepared in a little bit.”

 

Toriel smiles. “Yes, and in the meantime, why don’t you go outside? It’s a beautiful day outside.”

 

“I find it hard to disagree with you, Tori,” Asgore looks at Toriel, then at Frisk, walking to a window. “Birds are singing, flowers are blooming. Why, it’s the perfect day for a game of catch for later.”

 

“Uh,” Frisk says, scratching the back of his neck from uncertainty.

 

“Tell them you’ll be in the front,” Chara whispers into his ear, to which Frisk relays the information to Asgore and Toriel, who just nod and go back to the things they were attending to.

 

Frisk quickly walks out the front door, Chara trailing behind him, unsure on how to entertain himself until breakfast is made. Shrugging, he walks over to the star and stands near it, cupping his hands beneath it.

 

“I still don’t know the reason why you feel the need to touch those things,” Chara states, walking over to Frisk.

 

“I don’t know either,” Frisk mumbles, “They just make me feel safe… and Determined.”

 

“Whatever you say, dweeb,” Chara says, rolling her eyes, “Now find something interesting to look at, because I’m not getting real or alive anytime soon.”

 

“Well, then you’d better look down,” Frisk says, pointing to the ground behind Chara. She looks behind her.

 

A small path of slightly cleared out leaves is behind her, and leaves seemed to somewhat go around her feet, though a few were phasing through her feet. Trying something else, Chara kneels down and takes a leaf between her thumb and index finger. Grunting slightly, she manages to lift it into her open hand.

 

“Huh,” Chara says, idly looking at the leaf, “It appears that I’m able to physically interact with _some_ things,” she attempts to crush the leaf, but it only slightly crumples, the rest acting like nothing happened, “But it does not mean that I am able to do that to anything I can touch.”

 

“Try tipping over the pot next to the door, then,” Frisk suggests.

 

Chara shakes her head. “I think that if it requires more effort than holding a leaf, then I won’t be able to truly interact with it.”

 

“Just do it,” Frisk says, pushing on her back.

 

To prove her point, Chara walks over to the pot and pushes against it with all of her strength. Not even the dirt in it shuffles around, so Chara just swirls her finger on the top layer of dirt.

 

Frisk tilts his head, as if concentrating on something, then walks over to the pot.

 

“What is it?” Chara asks as Frisk begins grunting as he turns the pot.

 

“Think I see something on the side,” he responds, putting in the effort for one last push. The thing on the side is now completely visible, and Chara begins giggling.

 

“*It appears that you have encountered the very rare and unique ‘Floweypot’,” she manages out before continuing her laughs.

 

“Breakfast is ready, my child!” Toriel shouts out the door a few minutes later, and both Frisk and Chara break into runs towards the house.

 

Frisk skids to a halt next to the smallest chair at the kitchen table, and climbs into the seat.

 

“My child! It is not safe to run in the house,” Toriel gently scolds as she puts the plates of food onto the table.

 

“Sorry,” Frisk mumbles, looking slightly downward, to which Toriel smiles.

 

“It is alright, dear,” she replies.

 

“Careful- she usually puts snails into her cooking,” Chara whispers into Frisk’s ear, who subtly nods at her.

 

“Now, before we eat, my child,” Toriel begins, “Your lessons will begin in about half an hour, as well as a couple of, er, friends, will be arriving for dinner.”

 

“So we please ask of you to be on your best behavior for tonight,” Asgore finishes, nodding.

 

“Okay,” Frisk smiles, nodding, “May we eat now?”

 

“Yes, my child,” Toriel replies, “Though, might we ask of you… what is your name?”

 

“Frisk,” he replies in a voice barely above a whisper, making towards what appears to be an omelette.

 

“Frisk? Why, that is a lovely name,” Toriel states, turning to Asgore, “Wouldn’t you agree?”

 

“I agree, it is a wonderful name,” Asgore says, reaching for some pancakes.

 

Frisk smiles, and begins eating his meal, face slightly scrunching up from the snails.  


 

* * *

 

“Oho! That was a good one!” Asgore says, catching a ball that Frisk tossed to him, “But let’s see if you can catch this one!” and he tosses it back at Frisk.

 

The ball flew in a neat arc in Frisk’s direction, who moved to his left to catch it. Frisk raises his hands in preparation for when the ball would finally reach him.

 

… Only for a ghostly hand to swipe in front of the ball, slowing it down just enough for the ball to fall a few inches short of its intended target. Frisk caught it by his fingertips, and bringing it closer to his palms, shooting a laughing Chara a quick glare before looking back at Asgore, tossing the ball back to Asgore.

 

Lessons were done for the day, and Toriel allowed Frisk to look around the Ruins while they wait for it to become time for dinner. Wanting an opportunity to spend time with Frisk, Asgore offered to play a game of catch with Frisk, though currently Chara was doing everything in her limited power to mess with Frisk.

 

“Really, now. I’m going to throw the ball a bit differently, to see if you can catch it, alright?” Asgore said, to which Frisk nodded, “Ready?” He throws the ball with a little more force, so as to get past ‘the relatively strong draft’.

 

Frisk waited a second before making his move, reaching for the ball. At the same time, Chara grabbed Frisk’s wrist, moving it barely past the ball’s path. He whipped his head as his eyes tracked the ball, watching it whiz past his head and hand, and begin bouncing off, rolling behind a corner at the same speed.

 

Frisk looked back at Asgore as Chara released his wrist, a smug smile on her face, and said “I’ll get it!” before running after where he saw the ball roll off to.

 

“Where did it go?” Frisk wondered to himself as he ran, looking around.

 

“Are you blind?” Chara says, running beside Frisk and pointing a finger ahead, “It rolled into that bush.”

 

Frisk looked at where she was pointing, and sure enough, the red ball was lodged in the leaves and branches of a bush just up ahead, with Frisk whispering a small “Oh,” before running to the ball.

 

“Yes!” Frisk exclaimed, grabbing onto the ball and pulling it. No such luck, as vines were looped around the ball quite tightly. “Let go, you vines!” he whines, tugging it some more.

 

“Frisk, they’re vines. It’s not like they’re gonna-” Chara began to say, but as if the vines listened, they quickly uncoiled from around the ball, sending Frisk stumbling a few feet backwards before landing on his bottom.

 

“Ow,” Frisk whined, grabbing the ball before it could roll away.

 

“Frisk,” Chara stated, something sounding in her voice, “Look at your feet.”

 

Frisk did, eyes slightly widening at what was before him.

 

“Howdy!” Flowey said, a plastered-on yet cheerful smile on.

 

“What do you want?” Frisk asked, standing up and brushing the dust and dirt off of his jumper.

 

“Oh, nothing much. Just checking up on my _newest friend_ ,” Flowey said, winking and sticking out a tongue. “Also, _when do you intend on leaving_?”

 

“What? Leave?” Frisk said, as if the idea has never crossed his mind.

 

“I’d hate to agree with the weed, but I was kind of wondering that as well,” Chara states, nodding, “Not to mention that it’s kind of… painful, to watch your dynamic with my parents.”

 

“Be quiet,” Frisk muttered toward Chara.

 

“What was that?” Flowey asked, tilting his head in Frisk’s direction.

 

“Nothing,” Frisk replied quickly, shaking his head. “Just talking to my friend.”

 

“Your friend. Yeah. Right,” Flowey said, rolling the black dots that were acting as his eyes. “Did you even wonder why there weren’t any other humans running around the Ruins?”

 

Chara stroked her chin in thought. “I kind of figured that they should’ve died at some point.”

 

“They all left the Ruins at some point, kid,” Flowey explained flatly, “It’s best that you leave them before you get too attached to them.”

 

Frisk rubbed his right arm with his left arm with uncertainty. “But, they treat me really nicely, and in fact appear to already to be growing attached to me, despite only meeting yesterday.”

 

“I think that Flowey’s right, Frisk,” Chara says, but unsure of herself. “The longer we stay here, the more it will hurt when you finally desire to see what’s beyond the Ruins.”

 

Frisk turns his head to the sound of soft, padded footsteps coming his direction, with a little bit of talking. Flowey looks at him with a firm glance, says “You’ve got until this evening to decide,” before burrowing into the ground.

 

Frisk turns at the moment Asgore rounds the corner, phone in paw as he presses a button to end what appears to be his call. Asgore spots Frisk, and quickly walks over to him, kneeling before him. “Young one, it was taking quite a while for you to return, so I decided to check up on Tori,” he frowns, “It appears that we will not be having company for dinner tonight.”

 

“So, it will be just us again?” Frisk asked, tilting his head slightly.

 

“Afraid so,” Asgore nods, then stands and turns around, “I believe that that is enough catch for now, we need to return to the house,” he holds out a hand to Frisk.

 

“Okay,” Frisk replies, taking Asgore’s paw, and begins walking back to the house.

  


* * *

  


It is an hour after dinner is over when Frisk finally made his decision. He walks out of the bedroom, and walks out to the small star in the front of the house.

 

“Seriously, I don’t understand why you have the compelling desire to touch those stars,” Chara says, putting her hands on her hips.

 

“Don’t judge me,” Frisk pouts, pulling his hands away as he is filled with that unknown burning feeling, and walks back into the house.

 

“Whatever,” Chara says, crossing her arms, “Are you sure you have made your decision?”

 

Frisk nods his head, “Of course I’m sure, now let’s go.”

 

Frisk walks up to Toriel, hands behind his back and prickling with nervous energy. Toriel glances up at him and smiles. “Greetings, my child. Is there anything we could do for you as of now? Or did you just want to say hello?”

 

Frisk began to wring his hands together as he said “I’m just wondering, but what is it like outside the Ruins?”

 

He must have hit a sore spot, considering that her smile became strained, and Asgore’s breathing became slightly funny. “Why are you questioning that, my child? You should not be concerned over such matters,” she gestures to the book she was reading, “Why not… hear an interesting fact about snails, yes?”

 

Frisk stood his ground with his question. “I just want to know what lies beyond the Ruins.”

 

“An fact about snails is that they can have lungs or gills depending on the species and their habitat. Very interesting, is it not?” Toriel states, attempting to steer the conversation away from what Frisk was asking.

 

“Please. Tell. Me. If. There’s. Anything. Outside. The. Ruins,” Frisk said, emphasizing each word as he said it.

 

“Uh, how about we tend to the flowers?” Asgore says, nervousness in his voice, “They still need some watering, so that they can stay healthy!”

 

“I just want to know what lies beyond the Ruins!” Frisk whines, lightly stomping his foot on the ground.

 

Asgore and Toriel exchange glances before getting up out of their seats. “Please wait a moment, we have to do something.” They proceed to leave the living room.

 

Frisk and Chara follow them downstairs, and find Asgore and Toriel standing a little ways down the hallway. They both have somber expressions.

 

“You wish to see what is beyond the Ruins, do you not?” Toriel begins, “Well, this is the route out. We are going to block it.” The two walk a farther down the hallway.

 

Frisk straightened his back, not wanting to turn back now, and continued walking after the two Monsters.

 

“You would certainly die. For they… the Regimists, will capture you for your SOUL,” Asgore says, bowing his head, “They took the child who left the items that you are currently wearing, for our foolishness.” They walk even farther down the hallway.

 

Frisk, who is heavily intrigued, glances at Chara, who just shrugs, shrugging the shoulder closer to Asgore and Toriel, an indication for him to continue moving forward, of which he does.

 

The small group comes to a corner, looking north. Asgore and Toriel say at the same time “We only want to protect you, so we’re putting a spell that prevents humans from ever leaving, so as to keep them safe from outsiders.” They walk forward.

 

“Just saying, but there are more ways out of the Ruins than this one,” Chara mentions.

 

“No, if I ever want to leave for real, I want to know the true way out,” Frisk says, gritting his teeth stubbornly and walking forward as well.

 

He gets to a slightly bigger area, which has a large door at the end of it. Asgore and Toriel are standing in the middle, in front of the door. They have slightly disappointed expressions on their faces.

 

“You really want to see beyond this door so bad? Hmph,” Toriel says, frowning. “If you wish to go through these doors…”

 

“We must see if you are capable of landing a hit upon either of us,” Asgore finishes, bowing his head yet again.

 

Frisk’s SOUL is pulled out, and he looks between it and the two Monsters with a twinge of fear.

 

“*The caretakers block the way,” Chara murmurs into his ear, to which Frisk only nods, gulping a forming lump in his throat.

  


* * *

  


Frisk makes the first move of the battle, deciding to TALK.

 

“*You plead with them to allow you past,” Chara says, looking at the caretakers, “They pretend to have not heard you.”

 

Asgore and Toriel send a barrage of fireballs at Frisk, who quickly moves out of the way. He gets hit a few times, but is relatively unscathed. He tries to TALK to the two again.

 

“*You try asking them if you can be allowed past once again. They only look past you,” Chara notes.

 

The caretakers bring their paws in an arc, fireballs appearing and homing in on Frisk. He dodges all but one, catching his foot in the process. He pants as he watches the bottom of his pants burn without being scorched for a few seconds before the flames dissipate. He looks up at the two, pleading in his eyes.

 

Frisk moves his mouth, not paying attention to what was spilling out of it.

 

“*You say incomprehensible gibberish, but even then, you have the feeling that they wouldn’t have listened anyway,” Chara rolls her eyes.

 

The two send Frisk an attack that criss-crosses each other, leaving big enough spaces for him to weave through, though the cowboy(girl?) hat gets hit by one, making it spin on his head

 

Frisk opens his mouth in an attempt to say something, but Chara grabs him by his shoulders and turning him to look her in the eye, saying “Frisk! They won’t accept talking to you! You’ll have to FIGHT!”

 

“B-but I don’t want to FIGHT,” Frisk stuttered, fighting back how much his voice was beginning to tremble.

 

“You don’t have to FIGHT them until they’re dust on the floor, _moron_ ,” Chara says, glaring intensely into Frisk’s eyes, “They only want you to prove that you’re able to hit them back. Maybe then they will allow you past.”

 

“But-” Frisk begins to say, but Chara puts her index finger to his lips.

 

“This isn’t up for debate. Now quit stalling, alright?” Chara says, and turns back to Asgore and Toriel, who thankfully haven’t attacked yet.

 

Frisk gulps, steeling himself, and charges at Toriel, blindly swinging the empty gun. Toriel merely side steps, sending fireballs his way with a blank expression.

 

Once it is his turn again, Frisk tries going for Asgore, who also side steps his attack easily.

 

“*Looks like this is going to take a while,” Chara mumbles to no one in particular.

  
  
  


Several missed attacks later, Frisk was breathing heavily through his mouth from exertion. What started as begging in the beginning has given way to desperation and frustration, Chara running out of things to say.

 

Swing! Miss!

 

“Why won’t they let me through?” Frisk mutters to himself as he dances through the flames.

 

Swing! Miss!

 

“I do want to stay in the Ruins, but I would also like to see what the rest of the Underground is like as well.”

 

Swing! Miss!

 

“So why won’t they allow me to hit them?”

 

Swing! Miss!

 

Frisk closed his eyes, tears of frustration leaking through. He just wished to hit them at least _once_ , so that he would be able to pass through. At this point, he didn’t care how much damage he did to either of them, as long as he was able to succeed that one seemingly simple task.

 

Frisk raised the arm holding the empty gun subconsciously, not paying attention to anything happening around him. He was just so Determined to be able to hit them!

 

The end of the barrel began to glow with the intensity of his own SOUL, and the same color of it as well.

 

Asgore noticed what was about to happen one second too late, and shouted to Toriel “Look out!”

 

Frisk’s finger twitched, and the trigger was pulled.

 

A red bolt of light flashed from the barrel, and sailed to the spot right between Asgore and Toriel, exploding on impact with a massive amount of damage dealt to the two of them. They both kneeled before Frisk.

 

Frisk snapped out of it just soon enough to realize what he had done, running over to the two goat Monsters.

 

“Ah,” Asgore said, gripping his side, “We should have expected for you to get so frustrated.”

 

“Urgh. I have to agree, though neither of us expected _that_ to happen,” Toriel states with a strained expression. She looks at Asgore, then back to Frisk. “Listen, small one. There is something we have to tell you.”

 

“Yes. Beyond this door is an exit, a way to the rest of the Underground,” Asgore says, “Go as far as you can, and you will reach the Barrier.”

 

“Please, take our SOULs, so that we may be with you, as well as allow you to pass through the Barrier,” Toriel continues, “Do not let the Regimists do the same with your own SOUL, or else they will do the same with their Empress. Do not let them succeed with their goal.”

 

“And please, allow us to be the only casualties of this,” Asgore strains, streams of dust beginning to fall out of his side.

 

“It would only be proper, considering what we had just put you through,” Toriel says, dust also coming from her side.

 

She and Asgore lock eyes for a few seconds, before looking back at Frisk, smiles on their faces, and say at the same time, voices trembling “Be good, won’t you? _O   u   r         c   h   i   l   d_.”

 

Asgore and Toriel turn to dust immediately, SOULs fading into existence above their remains, trembling heavily in place. Frisk is too numb to even attempt grabbing their SOULs despite Chara’s urging. The two upside-down hearts split down the middle, shattering into multiple pieces and landing in their respective piles of dust.

 

Frisk is too numb to decide what he should do next, slumping down and curling up next to the piles of dust.

  


* * *

  


Flowey pops up next to Frisk an hour later, wondering what was taking him so long. He leans over, prodding Frisk with a vine. “Hey, kid. What’s going on?”

 

Frisk looks over to Flowey, tears in his eyes. “Don’t wanna talk about it,” he mumbles, setting his head back down.

 

“Now, what thing could- Oh. Oh,” Flowey begins, but notices the two piles of dust next to Frisk. “Well, now that can’t be good, right?”

 

“You stupid weed!” Chara shouted at Flowey, even though she knew he wouldn’t hear her, “Frisk just _killed_ Mom and Dad, yet you don’t even react negatively, or even acknowledge that he’s clearly in pain from the ordeal! Where were _YOU_ when he was fighting?!”

 

“Well, I can’t leave my _newest friend_ all high and dry! I can help you!” Flowey chirps.

 

“How?” Frisk asks, curiosity beginning to rise, and possibly hope.

 

“Nah, it’s a little secret of mine, but once I do it, they’ll be right as rain!” Flowey states.

 

“How?” Frisk replies, becoming very confused. Chara begins to look distrustful.

 

“I don’t think that I’ll need to explain it to you, kid,” Flowey says, arrogant grin on his face. He then gains an expression of concentration.

 

Frisk waits for a few seconds. “What should be happening?”

 

“Frisk, whatever you do, _do not trust him_ ,” Chara hisses into his ear, but Frisk just brushes her comment off. Anything would be worth the possibility of seeing the two caretakers alive again.

 

Flowey’s eyes widen in shock then slight fear, as he says almost nonstop “Crap, crap. This is not good, crap.”

 

Frisk cocks an eyebrow, “What?”

 

“Uh… uh,” Flowey begins, looking around in hopes of thinking of what to say. His eyes land on Frisk, and an idea forms in his head. “Hey, Frisk. If I remember correctly, you have a red SOUL, correct?”

 

“Uh huh,” Frisk says, nodding and unsure on what that has to do with anything.

 

“Right. So, um, I believe that, since you’re here, I can no longer do what I was planning to do to get them back. So, I think that we’ll have to brute force it,” Flowey states, looking away and muttering other things under his breath.

 

“What would we have to do?” Frisk asked, suddenly feeling dread.

 

“I’ll have to… shatter your SOUL,” Flowey says, looking Frisk in the eye.

 

Silence.

 

“What did you say?” Frisk said, wanting to make sure he heard that right.

 

“You heard me, idiot. I’ll. Have. To. Shatter. Your. SOUL,” Flowey says, “If I’m correct, then you have to be the one to do it.”

 

“What? No, I don’t want to risk _dying_!” Frisk shouted, backing up into the dust of Asgore and Toriel.

 

“Heeheehee, well kid,” Flowey said, his eyes darkening and mouth becoming sharp, “I’m giving you no choice.”

 

Vines wrap around Frisk’s arms, legs, and waist, preventing most movement. Flowey burrows underground and pops up next to Frisk’s head, face back to normal. Frisk’s SOUL is summoned, and Flowey sends a single pellet toward it, dropping Frisk’s health to 1.

 

“Let him go, weed!” Chara said, running at Flowey with the force of a soft breeze. She begins punching at Flowey, who only reacts in slight confusion with blinks.

 

“Wish I could feel sorry about this, kid,” Flowey says, forming a ring of bullets around Frisk’s SOUL, “But the least I could say is… see you on the other side. Maybe.”

 

Flowey snaps all of the bullets toward Frisk’s SOUL, causing it to split down the middle.

 

A second later, it splits into more pieces with more force than Asgore and Toriel’s SOULs, and the world is plunged into darkness.


	3. A Change in Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk learns about his new power, and attempts to leave the Ruins once again.
> 
> The first piece of the past is also revealed, into helping understand how this universe and/or timeline came to be how it is

_ You are the future of humans and Monsters! _

 

_ Chara! Stay Determined! _

 

The world turned to a mess of colors, as if Frisk was standing in a thick mist. Then, the individual colors came together, coalescing into their respective solid colors, and the world becoming sharper, and into focus.

 

The final sensation Frisk felt was the feeling of as if he was falling, landing in the leaves a few feet away from the glowing yellow star, ankles slightly shaking from the “impact”.

 

“Oh, when I get my hands on that little weed’s-” Chara begins saying.

 

“Chara?” Frisk says, looking down at himself. No dust, no tears, and no burns except for some dull phantom pains.

 

“- and I swear by my great-grandfather’s magic that-” Chara continues, not giving much time to breathe between each word.

 

“Chara,” Frisk says again, looking back up to Chara after finishing looking over himself.

 

“- and shove him back into the ground  _ where he belongs _ -” Chara huffs.

 

“Chara!” Frisk says, grabbing onto her shoulders and looking her in the eyes as he turns her to face him.

 

“What?!” Chara snaps at Frisk, still visibly angry at Flowey.

 

“Look at me,” Frisk says, not breaking eye contact with her.

 

“How would I be able to see you- oh,” Chara says, cheeks becoming slightly rosy from embarrassment.

 

Frisk smiled, but it quickly falls when he remembers what was at stake, beginning to rush in the direction of the front door. “Gotta make sure M- er, Toriel and Da- ugh, Asgore, don’t try blocking me from the exit!”

 

Vines wrap themselves around Frisk’s boots as Flowey pops up and says “Oh no you don’t! We need to have a little chat first!”

 

“Wha-?” Frisk begins, before falling to the ground with an small ‘oof’, slightly scuffing his hands on the ground. Flowey releases his vines, satisfied with the results, and burrows to in front of Frisk.

 

“Now, first order of business: Do not tell  _ anyone _ about what just happened,” Flowey says, summoning the most bossy face he could muster.

 

“What? Why?” Frisk asked, confused beyond capacity. Flowey just killed him a minute ago, yet now he was trying to… help, in some twisted way?

 

“I have to agree; why listen to a flower that only  _ killed you just a minute ago _ ,” Chara said, beginning to kick at Flowey, with little avail.

 

“Wow, what a sudden breeze,” Flowey said, slightly confused and blinking, but unperturbed, “Well, anyway, there is a reason why you should not tell them, and you want to know what it is?”

 

“No!” Frisk stubbornly refused, trying to get up, but vines were restraining him.

 

“Well, too bad!” Flowey said, winking and sticking out a tongue, before switching back to a normal face. “The reason you can’t tell anyone is that  _ what happened minutes ago never happened. No other idiot around here remembers. _ ”

 

Silence.

 

“No. No, no. This couldn’t be happening,” Chara begins saying, shaking her head, “How can  _ he _ ,” she pointed an arm in Flowey’s direction, “know about that?! No one but us should know about it! How in the world does he know about it?!” she asks aloud, and wraps a hand around his stem, tugging in a fruitless effort to uproot him so as to ask him face to face.

 

Flowey shivers in place. “Golly, why are there random breezes?” he turns his head as he looks around. “Whoever is causing that, can you stop it?!”

 

“What do you mean ‘it never happened?” Frisk asked slowly, “I clearly remembered it happening,” he then looks at Chara, “And can you please stop trying to take him out? You know it’s doing nothing much to him.”

 

Chara blinks, breathes in and out a few times, and, with a sigh, releases her grip on Flowey, giving him a very pointed glare. “He better tell us about how he knows,” she looks at Frisk, “And whatever you do, do not tell him my name. I want as little involvement with that  _ weed _ as possible.”

 

Frisk nodded at her, then turned his attention back to Flowey. “My friend wants to know how you know about that.”

 

Flowey blinks once, then twice, before inhaling and exhaling once. “Your imaginary friend. Right,” he looks around for a few seconds, before his eyes landed on the Floweypot. “You want proof that it never happened? I’ll come with you, and when you see how  _ right _ I was, I’ll tell you what I know of it.”

 

Flowey unwinds his vines from Frisk, burrows next to the Floweypot, uproots himself, and climbs into the pot, replanting himself. He looks at Frisk, who hasn’t moved an inch. “Well, what are you waiting for? Get your butt up and take the stupid pot!”

 

Frisk rushes to his feet, grabs the pot, and with a grunt, lifts it off of the ground, holding it close to his chest for support, and walks into the house. “Now what?”

 

“What do you think, idiot?” Flowey says in a low voice, “Go over to them and act like you didn’t just watch them turn to dust.”

 

Frisk gulps and nods, walking into the living room with a prod to the back by Chara.

 

Like before, Toriel was reading a book about snails, and it appeared that Asgore was tending to the flowers that were on the table, looking at them fondly.

 

Toriel looks up from her book, noticing Frisk with Flowey, and begins smiling. “Ah, I see that you two have made up, considering how he usually treats newly introduced humans,” Flowey almost seems to wither under the look Toriel gives him, but looks back at Frisk. “But I have to ask: What brings you inside for this day?”

 

Flowey sprouts a leaf at the base of his stem, waving it nonchalantly. “Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to explain some things to him about this place, from what I’ve learned about it.”

 

Toriel gives him another stern glare. “Please do not give him one of your ‘evil’ spiels that you like to practice on others.”

 

Flowey rolls his eyes dramatically. “Gosh, Toriel. You know I haven’t done one of those in nearly a decade.”

 

He seems to have hit a sore spot, as Toriel sends him a withering glare. Flowey all but shrivels up from it. “Take us into the room,” he squeaks to Frisk, who happily obliges.

 

Frisk opens the door, letting Chara into the room before entering it himself, and closing the door behind himself before sitting on the bed, resting Flowey’s pot on his lap while giving an expectant expression, nudging Flowey on the head to get him to start talking.

 

Flowey takes a deep breath and needlessly clears his nonexistent throat before beginning. “Well, just like you noticed, neither of those morons remember anything about what happened. Have any guesses on why they didn’t remember?” he cocks a makeshift eyebrow at Frisk.

 

“You pretty much time traveled, Frisk,” Chara tells Frisk, taking a breath, “They don’t remember anything because you went back in time,” she makes a pointed glare at Flowey. “That still doesn’t explain how  _ he _ can remember, though,” she then turns to Frisk with the same expression. “And don’t ask me how I know.”

 

Frisk takes on a thoughtful glance, before answering to Flowey “I’d guess… time travel?”

 

Flowey gives a knowing smile. “Wow, you aren’t as big of an idiot as you make yourself out to be. But that does not make you any less of an idiot as you are now.”

 

“Well then, how do  _ you _ remember when you killed me?” Frisk asked, narrowing his eyes in the same way Chara was doing.

 

Flowey gives a more secretive smile. “Hey now. It wouldn’t be wise of me to be blabbing all of my secrets at once, but know this: I’m the only one determined enough to retain my memories.”

 

“But how?” Frisk asked at the same time as Chara.

 

“Nuh uh uh,” Flowey says, wagging a summoned vine to the air in the motion of an index finger. “That’s it about  _ that _ topic. What you really need to do is learn how to use the power!”

 

Frisk shrugged his shoulders. “What is there to learn about it? I have it, so I’ll learn it on the way.”

 

Flowey gives a low chuckle, but in the fashion of ‘you have no clue how it works’. “Well,  _ friend _ , do you want to know what happens when you don’t know how to use it? Timelines jumping left and right, starting and stopping? Or your memories becoming more twisted around like some amateur’s spaghetti?” Frisk shook his head, slightly confused on what Flowey was talking about but beginning to become afraid. “Then you, kid, have better listen to my instructions.”

 

Frisk scratched the back of his head. “Okay, how do I start to do it?”

 

“Gotcha. All you need to do is- do it as I say it- pinch your nose, scrunch your eyebrows, think of something disgusting, shake your head, and blow a raspberry. Got it?” Flowey says, but Frisk is too busy doing all of those things to provide an answer.

 

Chara’s entire form is quaking, in an effort to keep her own giggles from escaping. This quickly dissipates, as she is left laughing her nonexistent lungs out at the same time as Flowey. “Pfft hahahahahahaha! You look like a total  _ moron! _ ” Chara squeals at the same time as Flowey says “Did you seriously think that would actually  _ work _ ?! Gosh, you are still relatively easy to fool!”

 

Frisk frowned and wiped at his eyes, which were becoming moist. “Well then why are you doing this? It’s not funny!” he sniffles.

 

Flowey’s attitude changed in less than a second, looking at the door nervously before turning back to Frisk. “H-hey, buddy! I’m… sorry, that I did that to you. So! To make it up, I’ll tell you the real way to go back at will, alright?”

 

Frisk sniffles once again. “You promise?”

 

Flowey closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, nodding as he says “Alright, I promise.”

 

“You had better promise, you weed,” Chara says, crossing her arms. “Or else I’ll wring your little stem if I ever become tangible again.”

 

“Alright, the only thing you need to do is remember the scene of when you last SAVEd. I’ll tell you what I mean if you can manage to LOAD, got it?” Flowey says.

 

Frisk nods, and closes his eyes, but opens them back up and looks back at Flowey. “How will I know which picture it is?”

 

“It’ll be the clearest one in your head, moron,” Chara says, looking away.

 

Frisk closes his eyes once again before Flowey could interrupt. He could see the image clearly in his mind. “Now what?”

 

“Reach and tug at it like it was a cord. Duh,” Flowey responds. Frisk nods in response.

 

Frisk reached out and touched it in his mind. Surprisingly, it felt as firm as a real picture frame in his hand. He put his hand around that image in time, and pulled-

 

Frisk jolted in place as time rewound, losing his balance and falling over, hitting his face on the ground. He lifted himself off of the ground on his arms, noticing blood dribbling down his nose. “Great,” he said, pinching his nose to stem the flow of blood.

 

Chara tilted her head. “Eh, a much better first attempt than my own,” she looked off into the distance as if remembering a memory. “Took me the better part of a  _ year _ to learn how to do mine at will.”

 

Flowey popped up from the leaves. “Considering that we’re still this far into the timeline, I’d consider it to be a success. What do you think?” He looks at Frisk.

 

“Not so well,” Frisk mumbled, still holding his nose.

 

“Yeesh,” Flowey said, looking away. “I know that the first few times are usually the worse, but I never thought it would be  _ that _ bad for a human.”

 

Frisk waved his hand dismissively. “Just lost balance, is all,” he straightened up, “Well, gonna see if Mom can fix this up,” He begins walking to the door.

 

“Wait!” Flowey said, popping up in front of Frisk.

 

“What?” Frisk says, a small drop of blood coming loose and narrowly missing Flowey.

 

“First, that’s disgusting,” he says as he looks at the small patch of blood. “And second, wouldn’t Toriel wonder how you got a bloody nose? In case it wasn’t obvious, but there aren’t many things around here that could possibly give you a bloody nose, not even Monsters.”

 

Chara gives a shrug. “He’s kind of got a point; anyway, you  _ could _ use this as an opportunity to practice using the ability.”

 

“Ugh, fine,” Frisk said, pinching his nose harder and concentrating on the moment of a minute ago. As he felt the moment in time, he felt another thing next to the moment of the most recent point in time.

 

Frisk wobbled in place as time turned back, this time bending his knees as he fell, catching himself with his arms. “Oof,” he breathed out, slightly out of breath. “How long until I stop falling to the ground upon it?”

 

“Eh, it takes several times to get used to it,” Chara says, leaning against the wall.

 

After a minute, Frisk felt safe enough to stand, Chara helping him up. Flowey, at that moment, decided to pop up. “Well, I take it things didn’t go as bad as last time?”

 

“Uh huh,” Frisk replied, brushing himself off. “Now, will you tell me more stuff about this stuff.”

 

“Right,” Flowey said, turning to the yellow star. “You see this here?” Frisk nods, “Well, this is known as a SAVE point. And unless you’re an even bigger idiot than now, you’ll have noticed that, when you LOAD one, you’ll end up at the most recent one that you have SAVEd at.”

 

“So, I LOADed?” Frisk asked, tilting his head. “And I felt something else back there, like another point in time.”

 

Flowey looked slightly alarmed. “That would be the RESET option, which will take you all the way back to when you fell down here. And I highly recommend that you  _ don’t _ touch it!”

 

“What? Why?” Frisk asked, frowning. “Then it means that you won’t have to attack me, and I’ll already know the puzzles…” he trails off.

 

“I don’t want to relive yesterday evening and most of today,” Flowey whines, “Besides, I have a reputation to uphold, and your shenanigans will ruin it!”

 

“Oh, I bet that’s a good reputation to uphold; attacking a child is something worthy to be known for,” Chara says, crossing her arms.

 

“Okay, Flowey,” Frisk says, nodding. “Guess I’ll have to try again later, considering that you might pester me about leaving the Ruins.”

 

“Wow, a nice change of pace: not being a major idiot for once,” Flowey says, looking strangely impressed at how Frisk was not resisting.

 

“I say in the meantime, you should practice with your, uh, LOADing?” Chara suggests, unsure if she used the term correctly.

 

Frisk nods once again. “I think I’m gonna just practice LOADing for today. Don’t want to risk falling over again if I need to use it again.”

 

“Uh huh, gotcha,” Flowey says, winking and diving underground.

 

Frisk turned back to the SAVE point, and begins concentrating on working on LOADing.

 

* * *

 

Frisk woke up the next morning to the feeling of something pelting his face and Flowey whisper-yelling “Wake up, you idiot!”

 

“Ugh,” Frisk said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and immediately widens them at the sight of Flowey poking through the cracks of some floorboards. “What are you doing in here?”

 

“I’m here to tell you that you should leave soon. Like, really soon, got it?” Flowey says.

 

“I… I dunno,” Frisk said, holding the edge of his blanket tightly. He remembered Asgore and Toriel entering the room last night, tucking him in, and giving a story for the night. That was the first time in his memory that anyone has treated him with that much love.

 

“You should do it, Frisk,” Chara says, propping herself next to Frisk. “You’ll want to leave this place someday, and trust me. The Ruins will begin to feel small, and besides, it’s not like they’ll tell you that you should nod come back, right?” she says, though only half convinced with her own statement.

 

“So, what’ll it be?” Flowey says, looking at Frisk with his best solemn face, though he knows it comes off as impatient.

 

Frisk wipes the building tears from his eyes and nods, tossing the blankets aside and hopping off of the bed. “I’ll do it after breakfast, okay?”

 

“Gotcha,” Flowey says, before ducking beneath the floorboards.

 

Frisk leaves the room as quickly as he can, Chara following closely.

 

He didn’t know whether or not if it was his impending question that was in his immediate future.

 

“What’s outside the Ruins like?” He asked as innocently as he could.

 

The rest of it fell into place like the day before, and before Frisk knew it, he was standing before the two goats blocking the way out of the Ruins.

 

Frisk opened his mouth in an attempt to find something to say.

 

“*You think of telling them that you watched them turn to dust… But that’s too creepy,” Chara narrates.

 

The two caretakers sweep their paws in an arc, sending fireballs Frisk’s way. Frisk gets hit a few times, but is relatively unharmed.

 

Frisk opens his mouth again, but still couldn’t come up with anything to say. “*Can you get past them without hitting them?” Chara says

 

An idea pops into Frisk’s head as Asgore and Toriel send more flames towards him. Frisk stops mid-step, planting his feet on the ground. He winces as the flames fly around himself, some hitting him, but still has half of his health left.

 

“What are you doing?” Chara hisses into Frisk’s ear.

 

“Standing my ground,” he mutters to Chara, looking at the caretakers defiantly.

 

Asgore and Toriel look at each other confusedly, but turn back to Frisk quickly. They send a spiral of flames at Frisk, who stands his ground. Frisk’s health drops to five before the attack abruptly ends.

 

“*You puff out your chest in an act of defiance. Toriel has to push down a giggle, because she apparently finds it adorable,” Chara groans.

 

Frisk lets out a big wince as a fireball hits his foot, but the attack immediately ended, considering he was at only a tenth of what his health originally was.

 

“Keep going on like that, and they might accidentally cause us to go back,” Chara grumbles.

 

“Don’t think so. Look!” Frisk told Chara as his turn ended. She looked at what he was meaning.

 

The flames were deliberately missing Frisk by a few feet. Testing something out, Frisk cautiously walked toward the flames. Asgore and Toriel, seeing what he was doing, moved the fireballs out of his path.

 

Chara took Frisk’s shoulders and looked him in the eye. “Frisk. Whatever you are doing, keep doing it! They might begin to see reason!”

 

“I thought they would stop attacking, but I think I can keep going!” Frisk said to her, “And I  _ will _ see through to this!” he finished, determination shining in his eyes.

 

The next several turns pass in the same fashion, with Frisk standing his ground, refusing to attempt hitting them. He was DETERMINED to see through the battle to the end.

 

“We know you want to see the rest of the Underground…” Asgore and Toriel begin, not bothering to send flames.

 

Frisk stood his ground.

 

“But please, go back upstairs,” they continue.

 

Frisk still stood his ground.

 

They look at each other, then back at Frisk. “You will be nice and safe here.”

 

Frisk was not moving from where he was standing.

 

“No one here who wants your SOUL.”

 

…

 

“And Monsterkind won’t have to go to war with humanity.”

 

…

 

“Tori, I believe it would be best if we gave him one of our SOULs,” Asgore says.

 

…

 

“I… I don’t think that would be the answer, Gorey,” Toriel says, looking downward.

 

…

 

“So I guess we have reached a stalemate in what to do, then.”

 

…

 

“Why won’t you see that we want to help?”

 

…

 

“...”

 

…

 

“We might have failed our children, and our kingdom, but this will solve nothing,” Toriel finally says.

 

“I agree,” Asgore says, nodding at Toriel. “Young one, when we look at you, we see the combination of our two children. The same hope in your eyes as our daughter…”

 

“And the same tenderness in your heart as our son,” Toriel finished, bowing her head.

 

Together, the caretakers say “We understand now. If we do not let you pass, then we fear we would be only blocking the potential you have for the Underground. It would not be very wise of us to keep you here, despite what we believe what the Regimists might do to you.”

 

Asgore and Toriel get out of fighting positions, and look at Frisk. “If you desire to leave the Ruins, we will allow you to pass through.”

 

“Normally, we wouldn’t allow anyone back into the Ruins, but…” Toriel begins.

 

“We feel that you would want to return anytime, for any reason you want. And we fear we may be powerless to stop you from doing it,” Asgore finishes, looking at Frisk.

 

“Please, stay here for a moment, while Asgore and I get some things for you,” Toriel says, to which Asgore nods, and the two go back up the passage.

 

After a minute of waiting, the two goats return, bundles of clothing in their arms. Frisk opened his mouth in disbelief. “It will be quite chilly outside the Ruins, and neither of us want you to come back as a little Friskcicle,” Toriel says, laughing a little.

 

Frisk pulls the warm clothing into his arms, tears of happiness in his eyes. Asgore, Toriel, and Chara turn their backs as Frisk quickly changes into the clothes. “Ta da!” he says, holding himself out for everyone to see.

 

“Dweeb,” Chara mutters, but Frisk apparently doesn’t hear it.

 

“Oh my goodness,” Toriel says, holding a paw to her mouth in amusement. “I could just pinch your cheek.”

 

“There is one more thing to do, before you depart,” Asgore says.

 

“What?” Frisk asks, wondering if there is a catch he didn’t find, closing his eyes.

 

Two pairs of furry arms envelop him, and he freezes up, realizing what they were doing. Frisk hugs them back. “Th-Thanks, for what you did for me… Mom, Dad,” he says, voice choked with emotion.

 

Frisk feels the two freeze up, but relax once again. “Well, if calling us that makes you happy, then you may call us whatever you please!” Toriel says.

 

A moment passes before the hug ends. Asgore and Toriel step back, looking down at Frisk proudly. “Goodbye for now, our child. We hope to see you again, soon.”

 

Frisk beams at the two, turning around, and with residual tears pushes through the doors with the Delta Rune.

 

Once the large doors are closed, Asgore places an arm around Toriel for comfort. “I hope he can succeed where we failed our kingdom.”

 

Toriel nods as she looks down. “And may he bring to the kingdom what the last wishes of Asriel were.”

 

“I agree, Tori,” Asgore replies, nuzzling Toriel’s nose.

 

* * *

 

(Authors’ recommendation:  [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBhFHJMVfiI ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBhFHJMVfiI) )

 

_ It has been several days since Chara has fallen ill, and a few days since she has become unresponsive to nearly everyone but Asriel. Asgore and Toriel were sitting in the living room, talking in hushed voices. Asriel could be heard in the bedroom, desperately pleading Chara to wake up. _

 

_ “I… I don’t know what we are going to do,” Toriel says, “She responds to no one but Asriel, but I think that even that has gone.” _

 

_ “I know, Tori,” Asgore responds, “I do not know either, on how to proceed if… if Chara does not make it.” _

 

_ One of the biggest fears of many parents is their child being stuck in a situation that seems that they can’t escape. The only hope of the two is that Chara could manage to- _

 

_ Asriel’s pleading abruptly stops, but the sound that replaces it is grave. They hear Asriel make the squealing inhale he makes when something goes very bad, with some rapid breathing of trying not to cry. _

 

_ “Asriel,” Toriel breathes, and immediately gets out of her seat, Asgore following close behind. _

 

_ “Asriel, what-” Asgore began as he turned to enter the room, but then a blinding white light poured from the room. _

 

_ “Asgore, what happened?” Toriel asked as the light began to fade from their vision. _

 

_ “I don’t know, Tori, but-” Asgore said, but was left staring at what now occupied the room. Toriel gaped as she entered the room with Asgore. _

 

_ Kneeling beside Chara’s bed was a new… they did not know what to call it. They sensed that they were in the presence of a powerful being. _

 

_ The being, after a minute of slightly ragged breathing, stood up, and took Chara’s body into its arms. It then turned to Asgore and Toriel. _

 

_ It was Asriel. He appeared to have absorbed Chara’s SOUL, and became a being of incredible power. But, rather than a horrifying beast like the stories told, he appeared… more like one of his drawings. Specifically, the one he dubbed ‘The Absolute God of Hyperdeath’. His horns were much longer, the normal whites of his eyes turned black with white pupils, and was wearing a purple robe adorned with the Delta Rune. The one thing that made him look like himself was the heart locket hanging around his neck. _

 

_ “Mother, Father,” Asriel said, with a kind but powerful voice. “Please, let me go fulfill Chara’s final wishes.” _

 

_ Asgore and Toriel were too dumbfounded to say anything, so Asriel, with great speed, walked past his parents, and began his way to the Barrier. _

 

_ Seconds later, the King and Queen regained their bearings, and followed their son. _

 

_ As the family rushed through New Home, some Monsters looked in the direction of the castle, and spotted the royalty following what they saw was a powerful being, but knew who it was. Some Monsters began cheering on the way. _

 

_ “We’re going to need to make a formal address,” Toriel muttered as they entered the Last Corridor. _

 

_ “I quite agreed,” Asgore said back. _

 

_ One minute later, the family was standing before the Barrier, Asriel continuing with his walking while Asgore and Toriel stood back, waving at Asriel as he began to fade through the Barrier. _

 

_ “Please come back safely!” Toriel shouted, tears pooling in her eyes. _

 

_ “Make everyone proud!” Asgore shouted as well, smiling in spite of the sadness. _

 

_ Before Asriel could disappear from sight, they saw him turn around, waving at his parents with a smile, before turning back to the Barrier and running the final stretch of it, completely disappearing from sight, no doubt on the Surface. _

 

_ “And may we not lose another,” Toriel says in a low voice. _

 

_ “Again, I do agree,” Asgore says to Toriel. “I do hope the Surface treats him well.” _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment if you liked this, 'cause apparently Slayerite and I live for comments and feedback. They pretty much help motivate us to write more (even though I, Silencium, do almost all of the writing)
> 
> Also, the italicized part at the bottom, in case you didn't know, was the first piece of showing how the timeline came to be (though Slayerite and I call it another universe, due to more differences between standard Undertale and this story, most of which will be revealed in time)


	4. A Change in Snowdin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk begins his way through Snowdin Forest, and meets someone new

Chara sniffed, wiping her eyes and nose on her sleeve as she walks behind Frisk. She was glad that she couldn’t produce any true lasting tears or mucus in this form.

 

“Are you crying?” Frisk asked, looking at Chara with concern written on his face.

 

“I’m not crying,” Chara says defensively, quickly wiping the remaining tears from her face. “I just… got something in my eye.”

 

Frisk raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I know you’re in a strange ghost form, but even I think that that is impossible for you.”

 

“Just be quiet, moron,” Chara says.

 

Frisk stuck out his tongue at her, and ran ahead.

 

Chara sped up to at least match his speed, but Frisk came to a stop in another room that looked like the one they both had met Flowey. Just like in that room, Flowey was in the small patch of grass in the center.

 

“Well, that went a lot better than I expected,” Flowey began, smiling cheerfully. “Now, you’ll be going out into Snowdin. It’s not good for me, considering the obvious, but I’ll still try to help you out, got it?” Frisk nodded his head. “Alright, see you in a bit. Meet me north of the next SAVE point you see, okay?” He didn’t wait for an answer before ducking underground.

 

Frisk blinked, unsure on what to do, before walking forward into the archway and opening up the next door, where cold air was coming through the cracks, his vision washing in white light, and… 

 

================================================================

 

A Change in Regime

 

By Silencium1 and Slayerite

 

================================================================

 

The door closed with a loud thud, but Frisk felt like under any other situation, the thud would have sounded final, like he wasn’t allowed back inside. Rather, if it could vocalize it, then it sounded as if the thud could’ve said ‘you can come back whenever you want’.

 

“Huh, that’s weird,” Chara said, looking in the direction of a bush.

 

Frisk looked at her, seeing that she was near the bush. He walked over to the bush, seeing something like something shining. He pushed aside some branches.

 

“*You don’t come face-to-face with a camera, because it has no face. You can’t help but feel as if someone is watching from behind the lens,” Chara says, slightly snickering..

 

Frisk began putting the branches back into position. After that, he walks back to the main path, pulling up his coat to keep his face warmer. Chara, for once, was glad that she was a ghost, even if her face was beginning to feel a little cold.

 

About a minute into the walk, Frisk came across a large branch on the ground, and began tugging one of the ends.

 

“*This branch seems too heavy for you to lift, pipsqueak,” Chara snickers into her hand.

 

Frisk gave one last tug, but his grip slipped, causing him to fall backwards into the snow. “Ow,” he said, sitting up and rubbing his back as he climbs to his feet.

 

“Just keep moving,” Chara said, to which Frisk nodded, walking onward.

 

A few seconds later, there was the loud sound of something being summoned behind them, like it was long and thin. Frisk looked behind him, and walked back to the branch.

 

The branch was now being hoisted up by two cartoonish-looking bones on each end, about as high as Frisk’s waist.

 

“*The real question about this is not how this happened, but how low you can do the limbo,” Chara narrated, giving a small laugh. Frisk giggles a bit at the remark, turning around as he shakes his head and continues more.

 

They don’t get very far until something else happens.

 

They hear armor clanking behind them, but when Frisk turns around, he sees no one per se, but he sees a figure finish darting into the thick trees. He shudders, and hurries up, Chara following close behind him.

 

One minute later, Frisk and Chara notice a bridge over a gap, with what appeared to be a gate with very large gaps between the bars. He rushes up to the edge of the bridge, and stares up at the gate, unsure on what to make of it.

 

“*You don’t know why, but you feel like you can stare at this gate for hours on end,” Chara muses, looking up at the gate as well.

 

For roughly fifteen seconds, the two children looked up at the gate in silence. The silence was broken, however, by the sound of clanking light metal and footsteps. Frisk was frozen in fear, shaking slightly, until the footsteps stopped right behind him. Chara seemed to be slightly scared as well, looking at Frisk.

 

“ **H u m a n.   D o n ‘ t   y o u   k n o w   h o w   t o   g r e e t   a   G R E A T   n e w   o p p o r t u n i t y?   T u r n   a r o u n d   a n d   l o o k   m e   i n   t h e   e y e** ,” the person said.

 

Frisk turned around slowly, and looked at the figure. They were in a silhouette, and appeared to be tall. He gulped, and looked up at what he guessed where their head would be.

 

The shroud disappeared, revealing a tall skeleton wearing metal armor, and a red-orange scarf around its neck. “OR YOU CAN LOOK ME IN THE EYE SOCKET. THAT IS GREAT AS WELL,” the skeleton shouted, causing Frisk to flinch, almost covering his ears.

 

“Uh…” Frisk says, unsure on what to say at what was happening.

 

“THERE IS NO NEED TO SAY ANYTHING, HUMAN!” the skeleton said, making what appeared to be a heroic pose. “FOR WHO YOU ARE GAZING UPON IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”

 

“Well, that’s good. I guess,” Frisk said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I thought that people would be wanting to kill me for my SOUL.”

 

“WORRY NOT, TINY HUMAN. EVEN THOUGH I SHOULD BE FIGHTING YOU TO GET YOUR SOUL,” Frisk froze at the mention, “KILLING HUMANS FOR THEIR SOULS IS TOTALLY UNCOOL!” Papyrus says.

 

“Why is he in the Guard in the first place?” Chara says, throwing her hands into the air in exasperation.

 

“IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING, I AM WHAT THE HUMANS WOULD CALL THE ‘GOOD GUYS’, PART OF LOYALISTS. NOW, THE REST OF SNOWDIN UNIT, WELL, THEY HAVE NO QUALMS ABOUT TAKING YOUR SOUL,” Papyrus stated, giving a concerned look at Frisk.

 

A cacophony of metal footsteps ring out behind Frisk. “Um, who do those footsteps belong to?”

 

“NYOO HOO HOO! THAT IS THE CANINE UNIT. THEY MUST HAVE HEARD US!” Papyrus vocalizes.

 

“What do we do?” Frisk asked, looking around for a place to hide.

 

“FEAR NOT! FOR I HAVE THOUGHT OF A GREAT PLAN IN THE EVENT THIS HAPPENS,” Papyrus replies. He then swiftly picks up Frisk and places him onto his shoulders. “PLAY ALONG, OKAY?” he whisper-yells to Frisk.

 

Frisk doesn’t have the time to respond before three dogs walk into the clearing, Chara ducks behind Papyrus for no reason, as one in a pink shirt wielding two swords and two in black cloaks wielding axes. “We heard you talking at length, so we figured that you had found something of worth,” the sword-wielding dog says.

 

“Yes, we heard the commotion all the way from our stations,” the left cloaked dog said.

 

“(Though we could not distinguish the exact words),” the other cloaked dog said.

 

The three dogs then look up at Frisk, smelling the air. “Hey, what is the new smell?” the first cloaked dog says.

 

“(Yeah, it smells suspiciously close to a human),” the other cloaked dog said.

 

“WELL, THIS IS OBVIOUSLY  _ NOT _ A HUMAN,” Papyrus said, holding Frisk’s feet to support him.

 

“Then what is it?” the first dog said. “You know I can’t see it.”

 

“THIS, DOGGO, DOGAMY, AND DOGARESSA, IS A PROTOTYPE TINY HUMAN. A PRODUCT OF THE COMBINED EFFORT OF THE ENGINEERING AND PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENTS. DESIGNED TO LOOK AND ACT LIKE A HUMAN, FOR TESTING PURPOSES,” Papyrus said, holding his arms up to showcase Frisk, who squeaked in fright.

 

“I dunno. I haven’t heard anything from the labs about any prototypes of that type,” Doggo replied.

 

“TO GIVE YOU PROOF! TINY HUMAN! GIVE YOUR DESIGNATION AND PURPOSE!” Papyrus said, nudging Frisk.

 

Frisk said in his best monotone “Human designation F-R-1-5-K. Built to test how a real human would react to meeting a Royal Guardsmen.”

 

“Seriously?!” Chara whisper-yelled at Frisk.

 

“That did not sound very convincing,” Dogamy said, looking at Dogaressa.

 

“(I agree),” Dogaressa nodded, “(We should get Endogeny to sniff them out).”

 

The other two agreed. Frisk nearly slumped and groaned, but he managed to stay still.

 

Papyrus, desperate to get the dogs away, went to drastic measures. He balled up his hands, and raised his right arm, pointing to behind the dogs. “I THINK THAT YOU SHOULD LOOK BEHIND YOURSELVES.”

 

The dogs split up, looking behind them. Three bones appeared behind them, mesmerizing them. Then, the bones shot off to the east, and, being dogs, they instinctively ran after them.

 

“WHEW!” Papyrus said, taking Frisk off of himself and placing him on the snowy ground. “THAT SHOULD BUY YOU ENOUGH TIME. AFTER ALL, EVEN THOUGH I GAVE THEM BONES, I DO NOT WANT THEM TO HAVE ANY BONES TO PICK WITH YOU! WINK,” he said, winking at Frisk with his left eye, while Frisk and Chara begin giggling. “I SHALL MEET YOU UP AHEAD, FOR THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE WILL NEED TO DISCUSS TO HELP YOU SURVIVE THIS ORDEAL! SEE YOU UP AHEAD! NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus said, running off to the east.

 

“Why don’t we just continue forward and meet Flowey first, alright?” Chara suggested. Frisk nods.

 

Frisk walks to the east of the clearing with the sentry station, and looked around. Looking to his left, he spotted the SAVE point, and walked toward it, cupping it in his hands.

 

“*Knowing that there is at least one Monster out here who defends you, it fills you with Determination,” Chara murmurs into Frisk’s ear.

 

“Yup,” Frisk chirped, turning and walking away from the SAVE point. He spots what appears to be a chest, but decides that he will check what it does or has once he passes through this section once again; after all, he will come back through either way.

 

Once he enters the area, he sees a small dock, what appeared to be a small tunnel across the river, and next to the dock, Flowey shivering in place. Flowey spots Frisk, and gives a forced smile.

 

“Took you long enough,” he says through grit teeth. “While you were taking your sweet time with Papyrus, I was freezing my roots off! So you better listen to what I’ve got to say, kid. Capische?”

 

“Okay,” Frisk said, nodding.

 

“Good, good,” Flowey said, looking down as he thought of what to say. “First off: Papyrus.”

 

“What about him?” Frisk asked, tilting his head.

 

“I’m pretty sure that he has already boasted to you about him being a Royal Guardsman but not wanting to hurt you, correct?” Flowey said.

 

“Yep,” Frisk replied, nodding.

 

“Well, he might be nice to you for now, that won’t stop him from trying to make you go through a gauntlet of the puzzles that he himself made,” Flowey said, gritting his teeth as a cold breeze passed.

 

“What makes you think that?” Frisk said.

 

“I know that because I spent a couple of timelines doing some of his puzzles to make him happy,” he looked down in memory. “He takes a long time, even through multiple timelines, to get bored of,” his attentions snaps back to Frisk. “But we’re getting off track. Anyway, Papyrus severely overestimates anyone’s puzzle-solving capabilities. He means well, even if they are very dangerous. Got it?”

 

“Uh huh,” Frisk murmured, nodding his head.

 

“Okay, uh, secondly, the Canine Unit,” Flowey stated.

 

“What about them? They’re just dogs,” Frisk said, frowning.

 

Flowey scoffed. “Yeah, they’re dogs alright. With deadly weapons and such. So listen very carefully.”

 

“Okay,” Frisk said, nodding and tilting his head in Flowey’s direction.

 

“Of them, you should be most concerned about Endogeny. But, other than that, the only ones you need to be concerned about are Lesser and Greater Dog, considering how much affection they desire from anyone, whether it be human or Monster,” Flowey states, shivering excessively from the cold.

 

“Got it,” Frisk nodded, “Try avoiding the Canine Unit.”

 

“Riiight,” Flowey said, almost skeptical at Frisk’s deduction abilities. “Well, see you later.

 

Flowey burrowed- or rather, attempted to burrow, but his body wouldn’t retract into the ground.

 

“Oh my gosh,” Chara snickered into her elbow. “He’s a freaking flower, so this obviously would happen.”

 

“Gosh darnit!” Flowey screeched, “My roots are frozen!” He looked at Frisk in irritation. “Would you mind LOADing so that I can get the heck out of here?”

 

“Mmm,” Frisk hummed, crossing his arms and putting fingers to his chin, as if he was contemplating on if he should just leave Flowey there. “Okay,” he nodded, LOADing.

 

He was back at the SAVE point, Chara still laughing into her elbow.

 

“Let’s get going,” Frisk said, waving Chara over to the box.

 

“Okay,” she replied, forcing down the rest of her giggles and walking over to Frisk.

 

Frisk grabbed the lid of the box, and heaved it with all his might. He came face-to-no-face with darkness. “What’s this for?” he asked aloud.

 

“I dunno,” Chara said, shrugging and looking into the box. “These weren’t around when I was alive. Try reaching into it.”

 

Frisk reached into the box, repeatedly opening and closing his hand in an attempt to grab something. A second later, something formed in his grip. Internally cheering at his success, Frisk pulled his arm out of the box.

 

In his hand was a pan that was slightly burned on the bottom. What he found weird about it was that it was surprisingly lightweight, as if made for a child to use.

 

“*You equip the burnt pan, wondering if you could cook anything with it. The thought of fried snow somehow seems funny to you,” Chara says, slightly laughing at her own narration. Frisk gives a small giggle in agreement.

 

Holding the pan firmly, Frisk marched onward. One minute later, he stopped where he was standing, as he saw Papyrus. It appeared that he was talking on the phone.

 

“YES, BROTHER. THIS HUMAN APPEARS TO BE RELATIVELY TRUSTWORTHY,” Short pause. “HE ACTUALLY SEEMS PRETTY NICE COMPARED TO THE LAST HUMAN WHO CAME THROUGH HERE. I JUST NEED TO FIND SOME WAY TO CONVINCE PISCES TO SPARE HIM,” Papyrus looks in the direction of Frisk. “AH, SOMETHING JUST CAME UP,” he ends the call.

 

Papyrus spins in place, looking in Frisk’s direction once again. “HMM, I WONDER WHERE THAT HUMAN COULD BE,” he points slightly to behind Frisk. “ARE THEY RIGHT THERE?”

 

Frisk looks behind himself, along with Chara, to find that a rock has placed itself two yards behind him. “Um, I think that’s a rock?” Frisk asked, shrugging his shoulders and holding out his hands with uncertainty.

 

“OH,” Papyrus said, acting like he was fooled.

 

“Uh… But what about me? In front of the rock?” Frisk said, pointing a finger at himself.

 

Eyes popped out of Papyrus’ eye sockets comically. “MY, MY, HUMAN! IT APPEARS THAT YOU HAVE JAPED ME WITH GREAT PROPORTIONS!” he re-composes himself. “AHEM. ATTENTION, HUMAN. BY MONSTER LAW, YOU MUST BE TAKEN FOR OUR FREEDOM. BUT! FIRST, YOU MUST MAKE YOUR WAY THROUGH AN ARRAY OF PUZZLES, TO TEST THE EXTENT OF YOUR DESIRE TO GO ONWARD. SO! BE WARNED, BECAUSE EVEN THOUGH I SUPPORT YOU, THINK OF THIS AS JUST A FRIENDLY TEST OF YOUR ABILITIES! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus said, running in the opposite direction of Frisk.

 

“That was… weird,” Chara muttered.

 

“Agreed,” Frisk nodded.

 

Frisk walked forward, spotting a small shed slightly off of the path. He inspected it once he had come close enough to get a good look at it.

 

“*A very unsuspicious shack off the path,” Chara narrated. Frisk began pulling hard at the lock. “*You hope that sometime it will  _ shed _ its lock.”

 

Frisk giggled, turning from the shed and continuing down the road. Several yards down the next area, he saw another shack and a sign next to it. He walked over to the sign, looking at what it said.

 

“*The sign says ‘Don’t move’. That’s preposterous because you need to move forward from here,” Chara quipped.

 

Frisk looked around, but after seeing nothing other than the shack a few feet away, he shrugged and moved onward.

 

That proved to be a mistake, because as soon as Frisk walked in front of the shack - which turned out to be a sentry post - the dog he remembered to be named Doggo, popped up into sight, growling where Frisk stopped moving.

 

“Did something just move? Or was it just my imagination? If it were, say, that thing the loud one told us, like a human - I’ll make sure that it never moves again!” Doggo declared, pulling Frisk into a FIGHT.

 

“Um, uh, hi?” Frisk said, unsure on if he should be saying such a thing after technically meeting several minutes ago.

 

“If you know what’s good for you, don’t move!” Doggo spoke, shrouding one of his blades in a light blue.

 

Frisk, out of fright, attempted to move out of the way. This proved to be fruitless, as the sword hit his side, though thankfully disappearing upon contact, even though he was hit.

 

“It moved! It didn’t NOT move!” Doggo shouted, growling in Frisk’s direction.

 

“*Doggo. 13 ATK 7 DEF. Appears to be extremely excitable from detecting movement,” Chara observed, nodding her head.

 

“And you didn’t notify me before because…?” Frisk muttered, rubbing his arm where the sword came into contact.

 

“Just don’t move for cyan attacks, that’s all,” Chara said, shrugging.

 

Frisk gave a slight nod, doing his turn, and quickly followed by Doggo’s turn. Taking Chara’s advice, he didn’t move from his spot. The sword phased through him like nothing.

 

Frisk looked at Chara, wanting some input on what to do. She only threw her hands to the air. “It’s a dog! And what else do people do to dogs?”

 

He widened his eyes in realization, reaching his arm out in Doggo’s direction.

 

“*You pet Doggo to the best of your ability,” Chara said, glancing in the dog’s direction.

 

“What?! I’ve been pet!” Doggo exclaimed, barking left and right as he turns his next attack light blue.

 

The turn passed, and Frisk SPAREd Doggo.

 

“S-something just pet me… And it wasn’t even moving… I hope Endogeny comes by soon!” Doggo said, ducking beneath his station.

 

Frisk looked at Chara, who just shrugged, before moving onward.

 

One minute later, Frisk spotted a large patch of ice, and next to it was what appeared to be some sort of black rectangle with a note written on it. Frisk picked the note up, reading what it said.

 

_ “ATTENTION HUMAN! THIS IS A MESSAGE GIVER, ONE OF SEVERAL DEVICES INSTALLED THROUGHOUT THE UNDERGROUND TO HELP LOCALS THROUGH ANY PUZZLE. FORTUNATELY FOR YOU, IT CAN BE USED BY HUMANS AS WELL. USE THEM WHEN YOU NEED SOME HELP! -PAPYRUS.” _

 

“Frisk, look at this,” Chara said. Frisk leaned over to see her pointing at what appeared to be a small red button.

 

Wasting no time, he pressed the button. A screen popped out of the rectangle, revealing the image of a short, stocky skeleton wearing a lab coat.

 

“heya, to whoever may be using this device. i’m sans gaster, royal scientist of the physics and metaphysics division, and this information box is here to educate you about blue attacks,” the skeleton stated in a laid-back yet professional manner.

 

“Cool,” Frisk breathed. At the same time, Chara was muttering something about how blue and cyan are not the same.

 

“everyone, knows that stop signs are red, right?” Sans’ image said. Frisk needlessly nodded. “well, instead of red, imagine that they were blue instead. so, when you see a blue attack, remember: blue stop signs. got it? good,” Sans said, before the screen switched off and retracted back into the black box.

 

“Blue stop signs. Got it,” Frisk said, nodding.

 

“Cyan,” Chara corrected.

 

“Whatever,” Frisk said, sliding to the other side of the ice patch.

 

* * *

  
  


Frisk walked into another clearing, though this one was rather small comparably, and located on a cliff. He saw that there was a large square of packed-down snow in the middle, separating himself from Papyrus. A lever was next to Papyrus.

 

“GREETINGS, HUMAN! I HOPE YOU LIKED MY NOTE FROM BACK THERE, BECAUSE THERE WILL BE MORE GUARDS UP AHEAD, WHO WILL BE USING SUCH ATTACKS. BUT THAT IS NOT WHY WE ARE IN THESE EXACT POSITIONS RIGHT THIS MOMENT,” Papyrus stated.

 

“Then why are we here?” Frisk asked, looking from the packed snow to Papyrus nervously.

 

“THIS IS MERELY THE FIRST PUZZLE OF THE PUZZLES THAT I MYSELF HAVE PREPARED IN THE EVENT OF A HUMAN COMING THROUGH THE FOREST WHILE I’M ON DUTY,” Papyrus replied, putting a hand to his chest in a pose.

 

“Nice. What is this puzzle about?” Frisk asked, looking at the ground as if to find something hidden in the snow.

 

“THIS, HUMAN, IS AN INVISIBLE ELECTRICITY MAZE. ONE WRONG STEP, AND YOU’LL BE EXPERIENCING THE SHOCK OF A LIFETIME. HUMAN! STEP FORWARD, AND PREPARE YOURSELF FOR WHAT WILL HAPPEN!” Papyrus said, pointing at the square in front of them.

 

Frisk glanced at Chara, who gave him a light push forward with a clear expression of ‘Well? What are you waiting for?’ He took a few steps forward.

 

Nothing happened.

 

“Um, Papyrus? I think your puzzle is malfunctioning,” Frisk said, shifting his feet nervously.

 

Eyes bugged out of Papyrus’ sockets. “WHAT?! IMPOSSIBLE! I JUST RECALIBRATED THIS PUZZLE! SURELY THERE MUST BE SOMETHING I MISSED!” he said, and produced a small piece of paper from his scarf, reading over it quickly.

 

“Is he serious?!” Chara rhetorically asked, tossing her hands in the air.

 

“AHA! NO MATTER WHAT, THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS FINDS THE SOLUTION!” Papyrus declared, turning toward the lever. With minimal effort, he pushed it into the ‘on’ position. Immediately, a low buzzing filled the air. “YOU MAY PROCEED, HUMAN!”

 

Frisk froze in place, not wanting to get zapped by the electric maze. But before he could begin to panic, Chara pulled his head close.

 

“Look at the ground of the maze,” she whispered into his ear, despite no need to whisper. Frisk took another look at the maze.

 

There were small but noticeable sparks coming from the ground of the maze. All but a narrow strip of snow had it. Frisk knew that most kids he knew would have a tough time getting through it. Luckily, he was quite small, even compared to other boys his age.

 

Frisk, filled with a renewed sense of determination, swiftly went through the puzzle. Chara, being ghostly, simply walked through it. Once on Papyrus’ side, Frisk beamed up at Papyrus.

 

“WOWIE! YOU SOLVED THAT PUZZLE QUICKLY!” he gained a suspicious look as he pulled the lever to the ‘off’ position. “TOO QUICKLY. BUT NO MATTER! IT COULD JUST BE THAT YOU WERE RATHER LUCKY. BUT REMEMBER: THIS WAS ONLY THE FIRST PUZZLE OF MANY. I WILL SEE YOU AT THE NEXT PUZZLE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus said before bounding off to the east.

 

“Come on, Frisk! There’s something in the next area I need to show you!” Chara said, pulling Frisk’s arm forward.

 

“Okay, okay,” Frisk said, walking forward.

 

After a minute of walking, they came yet to another set of cliffs. Immediately to their left was a cart with an umbrella manned by a blue bunny. Frisk looked at Chara, raising an eyebrow.

 

Chara huffed. “That was not what I was talking about, though see what he has to say before we get to the part I wanted to show you.” Frisk nodded, walking up to the bunny.

 

“I just don’t understand,” he said to himself. “This is the perfect weather for something freezing cold,” he then spotted Frisk. “Oh! A customer! Have Nice Cream! The frozen treat that warms your heart!”

 

“Ooh, frozen treats!” Chara squealed. “Get chocolate, please!”

 

Frisk looked at her skeptically, then back at the Nice Cream Guy. Sighing, he decides to compromise. “I would like a chocolate and vanilla twist, please.”

 

As Frisk gave the bunny his gold, the bunny happily gave Frisk the Nice Cream. “Thanks! Tell all of your friends! That a delicious frozen treat is located in the middle of the woods!”

 

Frisk waved at the bunny as he continued on his way through Snowdin Forest, and began unwrapping his bought treat. “Pfft,” Chara scoffed, looking away from Frisk. “Vanilla is for those who lack proper taste buds.”

 

“What?” Frisk said, biting into his Nice Cream while looking at the illustration of two people hugging. “Vanilla just means that you can add more flavors to it while you eat, including chocolate.”

 

Chara crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Sure. Whatever makes you sleep at night.”

 

Thirty seconds later, Frisk was looking sadly at what remained of his Nice Cream. Shrugging, he walked forward.

 

Chara stopped him once he crossed the small bridge. She pointed at a snowball on top of smoothly-packed snow. “See that ball right there?” Frisk nodded, “When you push it into a hole at the end of the course, you will get a flag color dependent on what you did with the ball to get it there.”

 

Frisk looked next to the course, and spotted the black information box. Rushing over to it, he crouched down and pressed the button. A screen slid out.

 

On the screen appeared what seemed to be a short yellow dinosaur with glasses and buck teeth. “H-hi, I’m Alphys Shipul, Royal Scientist of the Engineering and Technological d-division, and th-this information box is about ‘Ball’,” she cleared her throat. “With help from the Psychology division, we have m-modernized ‘Ball’, based on an algorithm dependent on stuff like sp-speed, time took, et cetera. But like before, results are b-based on the seven human SOUL colors. Just think of it like a more accurate and technologically advanced personality test that pays you for playing it. Th-the scoreboard is in the next area. Also, it sort of sc-scans your SOUL, so that in the event of making it on the top scores, it will be automatically uploaded. That is all.”

 

“Huh, that sounds a lot fancier than when I used it,” Chara said as the screen slid back into the box. “When I did it, there was a Monster whose job was to watch people play it and give us a GOLD payout dependent on how well we did.”

 

Frisk paid her no mind as he gently nudged the ball down the packed snow. After a few pushes, the ball went into the hole. A green flag popped out of the hole, accompanied by some pieces of GOLD.

 

“Nice, Kindness,” Chara stated. “The first ever one I got was purple, for Perseverance.”

 

“Hmm,” Frisk hummed, putting a finger to his chin. He grabbed the GOLD, and walked back toward the beginning, where another snowball appeared. He paid no mind to the small white balls floating in the air.

 

“What are you doing?” Chara asked, rushing to get next to Frisk.

 

“I wanna get a red flag!” he proclaimed, and began pushing the snowball.

 

“Frisk, that is insane,” Chara said, exasperatedly. “It took me well over a few months, including time shenanigans, just to get it, and that was the only time I got it.”

 

Frisk stuck his tongue out in concentration, pushing the ball once more into the hole. “Then I’ll prove that I can do it better than you!” A dark blue flag popped up from the hole.

 

* * *

  
  


Several hours later, Frisk was still determined to get the red flag. Chara had long ago stopped giving witty remarks.

 

“You’re not going to get it anytime soon,” Chara mumbled as an orange flag appeared from the hole.

 

“Just. One. More. Time,” Frisk mumbled back, speed walking back to the ball.

 

“You said that a hundred tries ago,” Chara shot back. A yellow flag popped up.

 

“I am quite aware,” Frisk replied, going back.

 

“You’re better off trying your luck some other time,” Chara said, looking down the path. Purple.

 

“No! I must do it now!” Frisk said, pushing the now-tiny ball into the hole.

 

“What makes you think that you can do it in less time than me, huh?” Chara shouted at Frisk. Cyan.

 

“Because I said so!” Frisk yelled back, pushing on the ball with high speed. He gave the ball a sharp shove at the last turn, toward the hole.

 

“Just because you say so doesn’t mean-” Chara began as the ball fell into the hole.

 

A red flag popped up.

 

Frisk and Chara stared at it for a few seconds before Frisk jumped and pumped his fist into the air, whooping as he went to collect his prize.

 

In disbelief, Chara read aloud what the flag’s description was. “* Justice .  Kindness .  Patience .  Bravery .  Perseverance .  Integrity . Using these, you were able to win at ‘ Ball Game ’ through sheer  Determination .”

 

Frisk looked at Chara with a smug grin on his face. “Told you I could do it.”

 

Chara responded with a hard punch to his arm. “Shut up. Now that you got what you wanted, let’s just move forward, okay?”

 

Frisk nodded resolutely, squaring his shoulders and puffing out his chest. He walked past the snowdecahedron, and to the next area.

 

Before he could get there, the small balls that he paid no attention to hours ago floated to a point above and in front of him, making him stop in his tracks. The balls converged to make a bigger ball - one with a smiling face on it.

 

Before Frisk could think of how to deal with this new information, the ball landed on the ground, transforming into something that had a vague resemblance to… dogs? No matter, Frisk’s SOUL appeared before him, as he looked on in fear, at the new creature.

 

“*Endogeny draws near, sniffing for human Determination,” Chara whispered to Frisk. He only responded with a nervous nod.

 

This might be a difficult fight.


	5. A Change in Puzzles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk fights and puzzles his way through Snowdin Forest

Frisk thought of all of the possible things that might allow him to get out of this battle. “Uh… uh,” Frisk said, trying to think of something to do. “Chara, what should I do?”

 

“I don’t know,” Chara huffed. “Maybe… pet it? It does look like a dog.”

 

Frisk raised his left hand, and began reaching toward Endogeny in a petting motion. It seems to be longing for the pets, but restrains itself, beginning to growl at him.

 

“*Endogeny heeds the motions of your hand, but stays away,” Chara notes.

 

Endogeny begins frothing at the mouth, which shoot forward, toward Frisk. He barely manages to dodge them all, but he is still nowhere near close to SPAREing the amorphous dog Monster.

 

“*Endogeny lifts its… nose? To the air, smelling something… determined,” Chara says, looking at Frisk.

 

“Okay, so it appears to be like a dog,” Frisk muttered to himself, thinking of something else to do. He makes a motion to bring the dog closer to himself.

 

“*Endogeny backs away reluctantly, not wanting to come any closer than it should,” Chara notes.

 

The amorphous dog pulls its legs into its body, and with the effects of a rocket, shoots after Frisk. Frisk nearly trips on himself as he runs around, attempting to get the dog away. He gets hit a couple of times, and is back to where he started when the turn ends.

 

“Got any more ideas, genius?” Chara asked under her breath.

 

Frisk, despite the question being rhetorical, nods. He rears his pan-wielding arm back, ready to toss it.

 

“*You throw your weapon at its feet. The dog Monster makes an echoing bark, sending it back to you,” Chara sighs.

 

Endogeny begins barking around, making visible ripples in the air, some of them with a cyan tint to them. Frisk scrambles to get out of the way, but not before getting hit once.

 

“What else could I do?” Frisk asked aloud as he put back on his bandage, healing him.

 

“Well, this stupid thing,” Chara jerked her thumb in Endogeny’s direction, “Is no ordinary dog, so we’ll have to try harder.”

 

Frisk put his fingers on his chin, thinking of another strategy. “Chara,” he began, “What did you mean in the beginning about it sniffing Determination?”

 

Chara shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes I can sense what they desire or have for CHECKs, and sometimes it’s just me making up humorous flavor-text and whatnot.”

 

Frisk tapped his chin absently. “You did say that it was sniffing for human Determination, so maybe it wants some? Or does it just not like it?”

 

Chara crossed her arms. “Hmm,” she hummed, “Frisk, try lowering your Determination.”

 

“What? Why?” he asked, “What if it just wants some of my Determination? I can always get more.”

 

“I’m more concerned on if it doesn’t like Determination. Think about it: It didn’t appear until after you got the red flag, in which by that time, you were overflowing with Determination. Combining that with what I said at the beginning of the FIGHT, it might be that it detects humans by high Determination levels. Understand?” Chara said, looking Frisk in the eye while hoping that he wouldn’t notice how shoddily put together her logic was.

 

To her relief, Frisk sighed. “How would I lower my Determination?”

 

Chara sighed as well, pushing stray hairs out of her line of vision. “I don’t know. Maybe try thinking of something that makes you feel undetermined. A memory, preferably. Those suck, so it should be somewhat easy.”

 

Frisk nodded, looking down and concentrating on his memories, looking for one that made him feel undetermined.

 

_ A crowd of children were standing in front of him in the yard, from when he was five. He was a new arrival at this orphanage, only one week in. Some of the the children pointed their fingers at him. _

 

_ “Why have you only worn striped shirts and sweaters?” one kid asked, pointing an accusatory finger at him. _

 

_ “They make me feel safe,” Frisk mumbled, hugging himself in his orange and yellow striped shirt. _

 

_ “That’s stupid,” another kid said. A kid laughed behind them. _

 

_ “Hey look!” someone said. Everyone looked in the voice’s direction. _

 

_ An older kid was standing in front of the window that led into Frisk’s room, holding a box of unpacked clothes. “He’s  _ only _ got striped shirts!” The other kids began to laugh as the other kid proceeded to dump all of his shirts into the bushes and dirt beneath his window, while Frisk watched on in horror. _

 

Frisk shook his head as he drew himself out of his memory. He never liked that memory, but he’s had five years to come to terms with it.

 

“*Determination levels down to 97.5%,” Chara noted. “Seemed more saddening than becoming undetermined.”

 

Endogeny made a sniffing sound, but growled again, echoey barks resounding in the area. Once its turn ended, Frisk looked at Chara, asking “What would you suggest?”

 

“Well, what I would suggest is a memory that made you feel helpless, because plainly sad memories aren’t going to do much in that department without dredging up more powerful ones,” Chara stated, crossing her arms.

 

Frisk closed his eyes, concentrating on locating a memory that left him feeling more helpless. After a minute, another unpleasant memory showed itself in the otherwise darkness of his current concentration.

 

_ Frisk was hiding in a dark closet, covering his mouth and nose to mask his breathing, for he was in a lot of trouble. _

 

_ This orphanage was a little better than the one he spent in last year. For starters, hardly anyone bullied him here, so that was a plus! And even one kid wanted to be his friend! _

 

_ The downside was that one kid had made it his life’s goal to torment Frisk every chance he got, with the one happening only a few minutes ago being the most recent one. _

 

_ Frisk was just in the common room watching some morning cartoons when suddenly the kid jumped out from behind the couch and shouted ‘Rawr!’. As Frisk jolted in fright, the television was wreathed in a dark blue, leading it to quickly fly off of the stand, crashing to the ground. Two rather expensive vases next to the t.v. were also caught in it, smashing into pieces on the floor. _

 

_ Horrified at what he’s caused, he jumped off of the couch, shoved the bully out of his way, and darted straight for the closet. He didn’t really know why, but he feels like he’s hid in this closet at least two to three other times that day, though he only actively remembers that one time that day. Deja vu or not, he was glad he got into the closet without noticing. _

 

_ “I think he’s in there,” the bully’s voice said outside the closet door. Frisk all but slumped to the floor, knowing that the bully also happened to be the biggest tattletale in the world… at least when it concerned Frisk. _

 

_ Blinding light filled the closet as the door was opened, revealing the faces of his tormentor and one of the adults. The bully, with a smug look on his face, yanked Frisk out of the closet. _

 

_ “Frisk, this young man,” she gestured to the bully, “said that you were the one who broke the television and those vases. Is this true?” _

 

_ “No!” he shouted, upset that they were even asking such a dumb question to him. _

 

_ The caretaker sighed. “Frisk, we know that you are always somehow linked with such incidents, and we can’t ignore them for much longer. Any way, someone needs to go to time out for this, so I ask of you to not resist.” _

 

_ “No,” he said again, not wanting the corner. _

 

_ The caretaker sighed again. “I guess that until someone admits, you will both have to go to the corner for now.” _

 

_ The bully seemed slightly disappointed that he had to go to the corner as well, but smirked at Frisk, appearing as if he was already thinking of some other horrible thing to do. _

 

Frisk snapped himself out of the memory before he was pulled deeper into the memory. He still got tears from thinking of the injustice (he still refused to admit on whether if it was his fault or not) that took place that day.

 

“*Determination levels at 92.5%. Endogeny appears slightly distressed,” Chara narrated. “Though, I feel as if you could have lowered it more if you remembered something that didn’t also raise your Determination a bit, okay.”

 

Frisk nodded, sniffling and vigorously wiping his eyes as to not cry.

 

Endogeny attacked once again, with the slobber flying at him at once. A small fleck somehow nicked Frisk on the shoulder, opening a small cut. Frisk hissed in pain, putting a hand to it to cover it until the turn ended.

 

Once its turn ended, Frisk took out his Monster Candy, quickly unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth. He then shut his eyes tightly, concentrating even harder. During the last turn, he thought of the one memory that should bring his Determination low enough, and all he had to do was remember it as clearly as possible.

 

_ Frisk was standing in a crowd of children, a sea of striped shirts. He felt like he should feel more safe due to all the children who also wear striped shirts on a daily basis, but he couldn’t help but feel unnerved. His eyes began to droop. _

 

_ “Hey! You!” an adult shouted in his direction, and Frisk opened back up his eyes in alarm. “Pay attention, we’re about to start!” _

 

_ Some of the kids around him snickered, calling him ‘Squinty’. He hasn’t been here for even a week and they already gave him a name he didn’t like. It wasn’t his fault he barely got any sleep in the past week. _

 

_ “Alright,” one adult up front began, “As all of you brats know, you are the newest batch coming to this orphanage because no others are willing to accept you for being ‘special’. Absolutely none of you- no exceptions- are special. You are freaks in the eyes of society, and for good reason, so this place is the end of the line for you. It is our duty as part of the FMC to make sure that none of you become a threat to society.” _

 

_ Another adult cleared their throat, and everyone turned toward them. “We have analyzed what we feel are your Colors, being from the common Green or Purple, to the rare and elusive Red. In the order of Violet, Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red, come up when we call your name.” _

 

_ They began calling people by first name, and kids began going up front to be led away to the big manor that Frisk knew was behind the large curtain. He knew he wasn’t Orange or Cyan, or even very much Blue! He had a little Yellow, but he knew it wasn’t enough, so if he had to guess, then he would be either Green or Purple. He would doubt it if he turned out to- _

 

_ “Reds:” the adult announced, looking at the list. They appeared to take a double-take, looking back at the list, squinting and frowning at it. “Well, looks like we’ve a lucky Red! Frisk!” _

 

_ Frisk’s face shot up in shock, mouth gaping open as he walked up to the front, realizing that he was the last one in the area. The slight disbelief at being recognized as a Red was abruptly ended when they yanked his hair and placed a vice-like grip on his upper arm, walking him forward and . _

 

_ “Now, don’t get us wrong,” they began whispering into his ear, “We were all quite surprised as well when you showed up as a Red, but the graphs don’t lie. So, as protocol, any located Red must be kept under strict lock and key, considering how ‘Determined’ your kind are!” they spit the last part out. Frisk was led into a dark tunnel that led in the direction of the manor. _

 

_ “W-wait! I won’t do anything bad! I swear!” Frisk pleaded, using his right arm in a feeble attempt to free the grip from his arm, but they were fruitless. _

 

_ “Ah ah ah, don’t get your little Red head too Red,” they said as they began to ascend a spiral staircase. They passed a few levels, and Frisk couldn’t get a good glimpse of what laid beyond before rising another level. “We have a little arrangement just for you.” _

 

_ Frisk got onto what appeared to be the top floor, barring where the attic should be, and was led down a hallway, turning to the right, before appearing in front of what appeared to be a bedroom door. The door was swiftly opened, the adult practically throwing him into the room before swiftly shutting the door, locking it with a whole bunch of fancy locks. _

 

_ “Hey, please!” Frisk said, quickly getting back up and pounding on the door. “Let me out!” _

 

_ “Shut up, kid. Your choices and desires, as a Red, do not matter here, and they never will as long as we say,” they sounded to be tapping their foot on the floor. “But, if you can manage to get out of there within the next twelve hours, then we’ll bring all your crap in there, capisce?” Frisk considering for a moment, then was about answer when the adult said “Don’t bother answering. What you want doesn’t matter,” the sound of footsteps retreating. _

 

_ Frisk stared at the door in disbelief. He slowly lowered himself next the door, curling up into a ball, not bothering to lie on the ratty mattress that laid in the corner. He began to sob, right next to the door, slightly shaking in effort. He cried out for someone, anyone, to let him out of this room. _

 

**_…_ **

 

**_But nobody came._ **

 

“Frisk?” Chara’s voice said to him, as tears began to fall from his eyes. Frisk sniffled, wiping his eyes before covering his face. Chara looked back at Endogeny. She noticed that what appeared to be its ears were drooping sadly. “*Determination Levels at 80%. Endogeny still suspects you’re human, but now wants to comfort you instead.”

 

Endogeny slowly walks up to Frisk, and begins pushing itself against him, as if asking if he wanted to pet it. Chara sighed, taking one of Frisk’s hands and putting it onto its fur(?). Frisk froze from the stickiness, but didn’t resist Chara moving his arm.

 

After Endogeny had enough of Frisk’s Chara-controlled petting, it gives an echoing bark, and practically (or literally) rockets away from the duo. Chara smiles, and looks to see Frisk still silently crying.

 

“Hey, Frisk,” she said, lightly patting Frisk’s cheek to catch his attention. He was still dripping tears. Chara bit her lip, thinking of what to do. A risky but possible idea to make him stop crying popped into her head. “Hey Frisk, want to know where I got my name?”

 

“Hmm?” Frisk mumbled, even though it sounded wet.

 

“It was my great-grandfather who gave me my name,” Chara looked to the distance, smiling in memory. “He told me that he named me that because he ‘Chara’-s ‘bout me,” Frisk blinked at her, not knowing how to respond. “He also said that he liked to think that I would have a lot of ‘Chara’-cter,” Frisk gives a watery giggle. “In fact, the only reason he was the one to name me was because he found me on his doorstep. I think I got my love for jokes from him.”

 

“Chara,” Frisk said, remnants of crying still in his voice. “You’re crying.”

 

Chara touched her cheek, and sure enough, her fingers came away moist. She gave a sputtering laugh. “Great, moron. My attempts at stopping your crying have only ended up with my own.”

 

At that, Frisk began laughing, with Chara joining in a few seconds later. A few minutes later, they were both lying on the ground breathing heavily from laughter.

 

“I think we should keep going,” Frisk said, sitting up.

 

“I agree,” Chara replied. “Now that we’ve got that out of our systems, we can move on faster. For whatever reasons.”

 

Frisk stood up, dusting off his pants, helping up Chara, before moving onto the next area. In this area, there were what appeared to be two scoreboards. Frisk looked at the scoreboard on the right first, which said  _ Top Scores: Daily _ .

 

Frisk jumped up and squealed, pointing at the scoreboard. “Look! I’m number one!” And in fact, he was number one for daily. “I’m so proud of myself.”

 

Chara scoffed. “You may be number one for today, but look at the  _ Top Scores: All Time _ board,” she jerked her thumb smugly at the other board. Frisk glanced at the board.

 

**Chara Dreemurr** was penciled in with the number one spot written as well, with the flag amounts and colors as well. All other ones below it were electronically recorded, including Frisk’s, whose took up the second place slot. Frisk gaped at the board. “How?!”

 

Chara smiled smugly. “I told you that it took me months to get red. I also played roughly as long as you would, so it only makes sense,” she crossed her arms.

 

Frisk began pouting, crossing his arms and walking into the next area. When he finished his pouting, he looked up, finding a SAVE point next to a table with what appeared to be… spaghetti? There was also a note next to it, and a mouse hole behind it. Frisk walked up to the note, reading it.

 

“*The note says ‘HELLO, HUMAN! I HAVE REHEATED A PLATE OF PASTA FOR YOU TO EAT WHILE YOU FINISH WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING IN THE PREVIOUS AREA. THIS SHALL PROVIDE ALL THE NECESSARY THINGS HUMANS NEED TO KEEP GOING FORWARD! -SIGNED, THE NYEHFULLY GREAT PAPYRUS’,” Chara read aloud.

 

Frisk looked around the area, as if expecting there to be a convenient microwave. “Where is a microwave? He couldn’t have made it without a microwave nearby.”

 

“I don’t think you’ll need a microwave for that,” Chara said, a bemused expression on her face she pointed at the spaghetti. “Take another look at the spaghetti.”

 

“Huh?” Frisk said, looking at it. There were visible heat distortions above the plate, and he could feel the heat a few feet away from it. “How?” He beared the heat to take a better look at the plate.

 

“*The heat emanating from the spaghetti is hot enough to cook most foods. The reason for how the spaghetti is staying this hot, or how it is not burned, eludes you,” Chara said quirkily.

 

Frisk giggled, turning to the SAVE point. Before SAVEing, he turned back to Chara. “Do you think the mouse will ever get to eat the spaghetti?” to which she just shrugged.

 

Frisk turned back to the SAVE point. “*Knowing that one day the spaghetti will cool down enough for the mouse to eat, it fills you with Determination,” Chara said sagely, bowing her head. Frisk smiled widely, walking onward.

 

* * *

  
  


Frisk stepped on the second X, turning it to a circle, then stepped on the button, walking over to Papyrus. Said skeleton turned to Frisk, noticing him. “MY, MY, HUMAN! YOU HAVE GOTTEN PAST MY PUZZLE WITHOUT MY HELP. ER, THOUGH WHY DO YOU LOOK AND SMELL LIKE A WEIRD PUPPY?”

 

Frisk looked down, slightly embarrassed. “I don’t want to say,” he said. He did not want to tell him the issue with having to get past the Dogi, not to mention that he met his first non-Flowey death to them… okay, no mentioning on his ability to turn back time, but he still did not want to tell him that he met with the Dogi.

 

“ANYWAY, ONTO MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS; DID YOU ENJOY THE PLATE OF SPAGHETTI I LEFT FOR YOU?” Papyrus asked, anticipating Frisk’s answer.

 

“I, uh, left it so that we can have it together later?” Frisk said, holding his palms upward in a questioning manner.

 

“REALLY? WELL, I’LL BE SURE TO TAKE YOU UP ON THAT OFFER SOME OTHER TIME. PREFERABLY WHEN WE ARE NOT BUSY GOING THROUGH PUZZLES, OF COURSE! FOLLOW ME, HUMAN!” Papyrus replied, and marched to the east, Frisk following in his footsteps. The two (technically three) came to another larger area.

 

Frisk looked at Papyrus with a curious expression as he walked beside him. “What’s up with this puzzle?”

 

Papyrus posed. “WELL, SINCE YOU WERE TAKING SO LONG WITH THE BALL GAME AND OTHER GUARDS, I DECIDED TO MAKE IT INTO THE SHAPE OF MY HEAD,” he said, turning toward his puzzle wistfully. “SADLY, THE SNOW FROZE TO THE GROUND BEFORE I COULD FINISH PLACING THE PIECES OF SNOW. BUT THIS WILL HAVE TO DO FOR NOW.”

 

Frisk stepped on a few X’s, but found that he was doing it in the wrong way, so he pressed the button to reset the puzzle. This continued for a few times before Chara held up her hand, signalling Frisk to wait. “I think I see something in the trees, so walk closer so that I can check closer.”

 

Frisk walked closer, next to Chara, and went to the tree. “Huh?” he wondered, and began shuffling through the tree branches. “There’s a switch on the tree!”

 

“That’s what I thought,” Chara said. “Well, what are you waiting for? Flip it!” to which Frisk did. He then walked over to the button, stepping on it. Immediately, all of the X’s turned to circles, spikes receding into the ground.

 

“IMPRESSIVE, HUMAN. YOU MUST HAVE LOCATED MY SUPER-SECRET SWITCH!” Papyrus said, leaping over the puzzle. “BUT CAN YOU, HUMAN, SOLVE THIS NEXT, DASTARDLY PUZZLE? IT SURELY IS TO ME! NYEH HEH HEH!” and with that, he sped off.

 

Frisk quickly sped around the puzzle, and widened his eyes at the sight of this next puzzle.

 

A rather large, white block with what appeared to be… panels was in his way, with only an orange oval right in front of him and a screen next to it and  _ Test 01 _ above it. The screen switched on, revealing Papyrus’ head.

 

“HELLO AGAIN, HUMAN. AS YOU CAN SEE, THIS NEXT PUZZLE WILL BE ONE OF THE HARDEST ONES YOU’LL EVER COME ACROSS IN THE ENTIRE UNDERGROUND, AND MADE BY A JOINT COLLABORATION BETWEEN THE PHYSICS AND ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS. IT WAS BASED ON A GAME THAT WE HAVE SCAVENGED FROM THE DUMPS, MADE TO PERFECTION AND HAS THE ‘PAPYRUS GASTER STAMP OF APPROVAL’ ( _ PATENT PENDING _ ).

 

“WHEN I PULL THIS LEVER AND TWIDDLE THIS KNOB, ANOTHER PORTAL WILL OPEN UP! THE POSSIBILITIES OF THIS PUZZLE ARE ENDLESS, AND NOT EVEN I WILL KNOW WHERE THE SECOND PORTAL WILL STOP. ARE YOU READY?” Frisk made an unsure sound. “GOOD. ACTIVATING!”

 

The orange oval opened to show somewhere that appeared to be inside the cube, then switched to another place, then another, and kept moving through possibilities. The rapid oscillation of views made Frisk begin to feel nauseous, slightly swaying on his feet.

 

The view abruptly stopped, showing what clearly was a straight path, to the complete other side of the cube. Papyrus stared through the portal thing. “FOR ONCE, I’M ACTUALLY GLAD THAT A PUZZLE TURNED OUT WRONG,” he said, spinning and moving into the next area.

 

Frisk held his head as he walked through the portal, ending up on the other side, Chara following him. He looked at the machine to the left, inspecting it. “*The machine appears to have been left on the ‘Testing Mode’ difficulty,” Chara sighed, brushing aside her hair. “Never change, Papyrus. Never change.”

 

Frisk nodded, walking to the east. Here, he saw what appeared to be several snow dogs with long necks, an empty doghouse, and a SAVE point. Frisk ran over to the SAVE point. “Looks like another guard should be here but isn’t,” he said, cupping the SAVE point in his hands.

 

“Don’t jinx it, just be glad it’s not here right now, so your life will be easier,” Chara mumbled. “*The apprehension in the air of the lack of a guard is overwhelming. But you stay Determined.”

 

Frisk barely made it two steps before being pulled into a FIGHT. He looked up to see a bipedal dog in armor, holding a sword and shield that bore the Delta Rune. “Lesser Dog,” he muttered under his breath.

 

“I never thought I’d say this, but I’m freaking tired of all these dogs!” Chara shouted.

 

Frisk shrugged. “I don’t know about you, but I’m diving right in to get this over with!” He dove at Lesser Dog, petting hand outstretched. Chara stared at him, stupefied.

 

“*You dive to pet Lesser Dog. You haven’t even touched it yet, and its neck begins stretching,” Chara said, almost unbelieving.

 

With each turn, Frisk kept petting, until Lesser Dog stopped attacking altogether, letting Frisk pet it to his heart’s content. “Must. Keep. Petting,” he said, petting Lesser Dog vigorously.

 

“Really, Frisk?” Chara said, putting her hands on her hips.

 

“It’s a dog, and all dogs need a good pat once in a while,” Frisk said, patting Lesser Dog’s head.

 

“Whatever,” Chara said, crossing her arms and looking away, waiting for Frisk’s petting spree to end so that they could continue.

 

* * *

  
  


Greater Dog hopped out of its armor, giving Frisk a lick on his nose, before jumping back into its armor, leaving Frisk behind to wipe the slobber from his nose. He looked at Chara, with an expression that clearly said ‘Why didn’t you stop it from happening?’

 

“You know fully well that I can’t do anything,” Chara huffed, gesturing to her ghostly self.

 

Frisk sighed heavily through his nose, walking onto the wooden bridge. Though, this bridge felt strangely… solid. As if it were actually made of solid rock. Frisk looked ahead once again, to see Papyrus on the other end of it, looking in his direction. Frisk stopped.

 

“HELLO, HUMAN! THIS IS THE FINAL TEST BEFORE SNOWDIN VILLAGE. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO GET PAST IT? WE SHALL SEE IN A SHORT MOMENT!” Papyrus said, taking out and pressing a button. Immediately, several large axes and spikes the size of Frisk appeared at the sides of the bridge. “GET PAST THIS, AND YOU SHALL SEE THE HOME OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS.”

 

The axes did not swing, and the spikes did not proceed. “Um, aren’t they supposed to be, you know, activating?” Chara asked. Frisk echoed her words.

 

“THEY WILL, IN JUST A MOMENT,” Papyrus said, beginning to sweat.

 

“That, uh, looks the opposite of activated,” Frisk said, nervous that Papyrus might actually consider turning on the puzzle. He almost shivered at the thought of what dying to that would be like.

 

“I…” Papyrus began, then looked down and sighed. Then he appeared to perk back up. “YOU’RE RIGHT! THIS IS THE VERY OPPOSITE OF ACTIVATED! BECAUSE I AM NOT. GOING TO. ACTIVATE. THIS. PUZZLE. BECAUSE HOW COULD ANYONE SEE HOW NICE YOU ARE IF YOU ARE SKEWERED?” He pressed the button again, and the traps recede back to… wherever they came from. “PHEW!” he said, turning away and wiping off sweat. He turned back to Frisk. “WHAT? THIS DECISION HAS POSSIBLY SAVED YOUR LIFE. NYEH! HEH! … HEH?!” Papyrus said, before running off.

 

“I don’t know why, but I feel that that exchange should’ve taken longer. But whatever,” Chara said, gently pushing Frisk forward.

 

“I know, but at least I won’t have to face Greater Dog again,” Frisk muttered, walking toward the little town.

 

When he got in front of what appeared to be a store and inn, Frisk noticed a SAVE point, walking toward it. He cupped his hands beneath it, SAVEing.

 

“*The sight of the town before you fills you with Determination,” Chara said. Frisk looked at her, raising an eyebrow. “What? I couldn’t think of anything else to say.” Frisk sighed, entering the shop.

 

The shopkeeper looked up at Frisk, smiling at him. “Ah, I’ve heard that a human was going to pass through town today, but I didn’t think that you’d come to the shop. Monster or human, anyone is welcome here.”

 

Frisk looked around for a bit, pulling out some coins in case anything caught his eye. He came across what appeared to be a bag of leaves, and a slightly-stained apron. He picked them up, waddling them to the counter. “I want these, please.”

 

The bunny nodded. “Those will be 40 G,” Frisk gave her the coins, and gleefully began walking out the door, nearly forgetting his items. “Snowdin roots for you, human,” she called out before he left.

 

Frisk put on the apron. “Something decent to wear,” he said, tying it around his waist. “Also, what are these?” he asked, holding up the plastic bag filled with leaves.

 

“Hmm,” Chara hummed, holding her chin. “*Bag of Herbs. Recovers 29 HP. Various herbs, none of which emit a mint scent.”

 

“Great,” Frisk chirped, walking eastward. “Gotta find Papyrus, first.”

 

“Wait wait wait,” Chara said, walking in front of Frisk. “Why don’t you… uh, look around first? No need to rush things, right?”

 

Frisk shook his head. “I don’t want to take too long. Besides, I’m sure that Papyrus will be willing to let me stay over wherever he lives for the night.”

 

Chara bit her lip, contemplating. “You do have a point, and he does seem like the type of person who would do that with someone he just met… Fine.”

 

Frisk silently congratulated himself, and eagerly walked toward the eastern edge of town. Fog began to suddenly begin forming, and at its thickest, he stopped, for fear of getting lost in the thick fog.

 

Suddenly, the silhouette of Papyrus appeared. “HUMAN,” he began. “ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU SOME VERY COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE… THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER COOKING LOVER. EXCELLENT SKILL AT SOLVING PUZZLES. BEING ABLE TO SOLVE THINGS PEACEFULLY, AND PREVENT ESCALATION OF CONFLICT. THESE FEELINGS… YOU MUST BE FEELING THESE RIGHT NOW!!!”

 

“Eh, sorta,” Frisk whispered, and needlessly waved his hand.

 

“AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT, AND HARDLY EVER KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE,” Papyrus continued. “YOU SEEM TO BE IN NEED OF AN EXTRA FRIEND, ESPECIALLY IN THE UNDERGROUND AT THESE TRYING TIMES. I PITY THAT YOU SEEM TO LACK ANY RIGHT NOW. WORRY NOT, YOU SHALL NOT HAVE FEW FRIENDS FOR ANY LONGER! FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL BE YOUR…” he trailed off.

 

“Papyrus?” Frisk questioned, becoming worried at what was happening.

 

“NO, NO! THIS MIGHT TURN OUT WRONG! YOU’RE A HUMAN! IF ANY OTHER GUARD FINDS OUT, THEY MAY TRY TO CAPTURE YOU! AND AS A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, IT IS PART OF MY DUTY TO CAPTURE YOU! IF I CAPTURE YOU FIRST, THEN I CAN KEEP THE OTHER GUARDS FROM TAKING YOU TO THE EMPRESS! NYEH HEH HEH!”

 

A FIGHT began, exposing Frisk’s SOUL. He looked up to see Papyrus, an expression of future victory written on his skull. “*Papyrus blocks the way,” Chara breathed.


	6. A Change in Capturing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk FIGHTs with Papyrus to gain access to the rest of the Underground for later

“Frisk, you had better ACT fast,” Chara warned Frisk. “I know that the attacking Monster almost never attacks first, out of courtesy, but still.

 

“Um, CHECK him,” Frisk said, holding up his pan defensively.

 

“*Papyrus, 20 ATK 20 DEF. His logic is strange, but sound,” Chara said.

 

“NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus shouted, sending several short bones Frisk’s way. None of them were even close to hitting him.

 

Frisk looked back at Chara. “What should I do?”

 

Chara crossed her arms and put her index finger to her chin, tapping it in thought.  “Hmm… Well, I do know that, in Monster culture, winking your left eye is a sign of friendliness, or not wanting to engage in FIGHTs.”

 

“What happens if I wink my right eye?” Frisk asked in curiosity.

 

Chara chewed her lip, contemplating on whether or not if she should tell him this information. “Well, winking your right eye is the biggest threat you can do. It is a show of power as well, so it is not to be done lightly. When doing that, the left eye is called the eye of power, to show that you mean business.”

 

“Oh,” Frisk replied, looking down, then forward. “Then I’m going to wink my left eye!” he said.

 

“*You wink your left eye,” Chara narrates, then looks at what Frisk was also doing, sighing and rolling her eyes. “For good measure, you do finger guns.”

 

Papyrus narrows his sockets, then widens his sockets. “YOU’RE FL-FLIRTING? WITH ME, HUMAN?” Frisk gives an unsure shrug. “WELL, IF YOU WANT TO DATE ME, YOU WILL HAVE TO PROVE YOU’RE WORTHY OF MY GREATNESS!”

 

“I think that puzzles are cool!” Frisk blurted out. Chara scrunched up her face, wondering why he specifically said that.

 

“OH NO!!! YOUR WORTHINESS IS VERY HIGH!!!” Papyrus said, eyes bugging out of his sockets. “I GUESS THIS MEANS THAT YOU WANT TO DATE ME…? WE’LL DATE LATER!! AFTER YOU’RE CAPTURED! BUT UNTIL THEN, LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED ‘BLUE ATTACK’!”

 

As cyan-colored bones were summoned around the two of them, Chara huffed and crossed her arms. “Why does everyone keep calling it a blue attack?! It’s. Clearly. Cyan.”

 

All of the colored bones passed through Frisk harmlessly, owing to the fact that he was standing still. He let out a sigh of relief when the last cyan bone passed through him. Suddenly, all of his limbs felt like they were filled with lead, causing him to collapse to the ground. Frisk couldn’t get up in time to dodge a short white bone. Chara said “Now THAT, Frisk, is a blue attack,” at the same time as Papyrus said “YOU’RE BLUE NOW. THAT’S MY ATTACK! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”

 

Frisk groaned from the sudden weight that was put upon him, turning to Chara. “Why couldn’t you have warned me of what this ‘blue attack’ does to me beforehand?”

 

Chara shrugged. “I thought that everyone was just being stupid about cyan attacks. I didn’t even think that they were talking about using blue magic on you.”

 

Frisk vaguely nodded. “Blue magic. Right,” he sighed through his nose heavily. “What do you think I should do?”

 

“I don’t know. Do the same thing you did with Mom and Dad?” Chara frowned.

 

Frisk turned back to Papyrus. “I don’t want to fight you!” he declared.

 

“HMM… I WONDER WHAT I SHOULD WEAR,” Papyrus thought aloud. Several bones appeared in front of him, heading in Frisk’s direction.

 

“What should I do?” Frisk frantically asked, backing away from the incoming bones until he could back up no more.

 

Chara looked back at the boy with an expression that screamed ‘are you really that stupid?’. “What do you think, lazybutt? Jump!”

 

Frisk jumped with all of his might, and was surprised at how high he went. While on the ground, he felt heavier than a brick. However, in the air, he felt as light as a feather… heck, even the feather lands like a brick compared to him! He jumped over the next few bones, smiling widely as he landed on the ground. Frisk stood where he was, refusing to fight.

 

“WHAT?! I’M JUST THINKING ABOUT WHAT I SHOULD WEAR FOR THE DATE! NEED TO LOOK GOOD AND ALL!!” Papyrus stated in Frisk’s direction, sending more bones his way.

 

“He’s really… forthcoming, with this information,” Chara said, frowning slightly as she crossed her arms. “Maybe he’s trying to calm himself down? Or maybe he’s using it as a way to say that he doesn’t want to date you?”

 

“I wasn’t intending for him to interpret it as wanting to date him,” Frisk said to Chara, through his teeth. “I only flirted with him to catch him off guard, so that he might allow me past,” he jumped over a bone.

 

Frisk stood his ground once it was his turn again. “HOW HIGH CAN YOU JUMP?” Papyrus rhetorically asked. Frisk was too busy trying not to get hit to answer, anyway.

 

“Is… is he dabbing ‘Bone Cologne’ behind where his ear should be?” Chara asked, incredibly dumbfounded.

 

“Too. Busy. Dodging,” Frisk grit out, getting hit in the ankle to punctuate the final word.

 

“You should heal,” Chara muttered, looking at Frisk’s health, which was sitting at about eight.

 

“Nah, I’m good,” Frisk replied, breathing heavily, and SPAREd Papyrus once again.

 

“YEAH! DON’T MAKE ME USE MY  SPECIAL ATTACK !” Papyrus shouted, apparently having forgotten about the date for a moment. This time, it was cyan bones mixed with normal bones, causing Frisk to need to time his jumps. He could not, however, move out of the way of the last bone, causing him to take three damage.

 

“Can we stop fighting?” Frisk asked, out of wanting to avoid more fighting. Papyrus was obviously trying not to listen, but he continued sending bones.

 

“*Papyrus’ DEF lowered significantly,” Chara noted, watching as Papyrus kept on going.

 

“YOU WON’T HAVE TO FIGHT ANYONE ELSE HERE WHILE THINGS BLOW OVER IN THE UNDERGROUND!” Papyrus proclaimed, holding out a hand, as if asking Frisk to just allow himself to get captured. Yet more bones appeared around them.

 

These bones went slightly slower, which was a plus in Frisk and Chara’s opinion. “It’s slower, but luckily for me, I don’t have to worry about them,” Chara said, raising her arms in bragging. As if to prove her point, a row of bones passed through her like air, slightly slowing down, before continuing forward.

 

Frisk shot her a glare, turning back to see a bone heading straight for his head. Out of instinct, Frisk ducked his head, hoping it would be just enough. To his relief, he felt the air pushed out of the way go through his hair, whipping it around. His landing was sloppy, but there were no more bones coming.

 

“I really think you should-” Chara started, but Frisk cut her off.

 

“A couple more turns, alright? I think I can take it,” Frisk said, holding up his hand.

 

Chara huffed, turning her head away from the boy. “I swear, if this is some sort of pride thing boys these days have, then I would forfeit all of my magic if I could,” she muttered under her breath.

 

“WE COULD POSSIBLY GO ON WEEKLY TRIPS TO THE LABS!” Papyrus said optimistically.

 

“Towing me around with a bunch of Monsters who would like my SOUL? Thanks, but no thanks,” Frisk said. He felt a sudden pain in his hand, and winced. Looking at his hand, he saw a small bruise forming, from a bone he neglected to notice.

 

“THE RIVERPERSON WILL TAKE ANYONE, WHETHER IT BE MONSTER OR HUMAN. I’VE SEEN THEM TAKE A HUMAN AS A PASSENGER BEFORE!” Papyrus reasoned.

 

“You don’t seem like the type to lie, but how would I know that you’re not lying?” Frisk asked, slightly tilting his head in question.

 

“Frisk!” Chara shouted suddenly. The one in question looked in her direction.

 

“What?” he asked, wondering what was happening with her to warrant her wanting his attention.

 

“Look out!” she said as if in slow motion, pointing to something behind Frisk. He looked at what she was pointing at.

 

A bone was mere inches from his face, too close to dodge.

 

Frisk clamped his eyes shut, bracing for impact. He was saddened by the prospect of having Papyrus accidentally kill him (not that the skeleton would remember), even when he was being extremely nice to him.

 

The bone impacted his skull, but with less force than he anticipated. Groaning loudly from pain and holding his bleeding nose, he saw all other bones dissolve into nothingness. Frisk collapsed to the ground in exhaustion and pain.

 

“YOU’RE TOO WEAK TO CONTINUE! BY MONSTER LAW, IF I CAN NOT MANAGE TO TAKE YOUR SOUL, THEN YOU ARE TO BE CAPTURED AND STAY IN CAPTIVITY UNTIL SOMEONE WHO CAN COMES FOR YOU! I HOPE YOU WILL FIND THE ‘CAPTIVITY QUARTERS’ QUITE TO YOUR LIKING. NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus scooped up Frisk as if he were a baby, and not a moment later, Frisk lost consciousness.

 

* * *

  
  


“Ugh,” Frisk groaned, holding his head as he regained consciousness. Looking around, he noticed that whatever he was lying on was soft. Like a bed.

 

“Finally the lazybutt gets up,” the ghost-spirit girl said, walking over to Frisk. “You’ve been out for the past thirty minutes.”

 

“Huh? Why weren’t you also knocked out? And where are we?” Frisk asked, climbing out of the bed he was in.

 

“I don’t know how I was still conscious, but Papyrus took you to what I assumed to be his house, into what appears to be a guest bedroom,” Chara gasped in remembering. “He also wrote a note for you. Better see what it says.”

 

Frisk looked at the nightstand next to the bed and grabbed the note propped up against the lamp.  _ “HUMAN, I’M VERY SORRY I HAD TO DO THIS, BUT DON’T WORRY! ONCE I’VE CONVINCED THE GUARD CAPTAIN TO NOT GO SEARCHING FOR YOU IN SNOWDIN, THEN WE CAN PROCEED ON OUR DATE. NYEHFULLY YOURS, PAPYRUS.” _

 

“Well, at least he was kind enough to tuck you into bed,” Chara stated, shrugging.

 

Frisk shoved the note into his pocket, swiftly walking out the door of the room and not paying attention to any detail of the room he entered, leaving through what he expected to be the front door. Chara jogged to catch up with Frisk, slightly wincing when Frisk’s face hit the cold outside air of Snowdin. “Why don’t you, uh, stay here the night? You know, rest up, try again tomorrow?” Chara frowned and shuddered. “Or do you think that you don’t deserve it?”

 

Frisk frowned. “No, I do not think I don’t deserve it. I just want to get this over with so that I won’t have to worry about leaving tomorrow.”

 

“Oh,” Chara said, turning away to hide the blush of embarrassment from thinking such a thing..

 

In the distance, the two children could see the dark silhouette of Papyrus standing in the middle of the path, an expression of deep thinking upon his skull. Frisk got within several meters of him before he seemed to notice the small human standing before him. “HUMAN! IT APPEARS THAT YOU HAVE LEFT THE HOUSE? THAT’S NOT GOOD… BUT IT’S NOT SO BAD EITHER! I COULD HAVE YOU AS PROOF THAT HUMANS CAN ESCAPE BUT STILL BE GOOD!” he seemed to have a hopeful face before switching it to realizing what he said. “WAAAAAIT A SECOND! THIS WOULD BE TOO SOON, AND WE STILL HAVEN’T HAD OUR DATE YET! WHOOPSY DOOPSY!”

 

“He seems to really want this date,” Chara murmured, putting her forehead into her palm and shaking her head.

 

“Apparently,” Frisk agreed, jumping over the bone that appears once his SOUL becomes blue.

 

Frisk jumped over the attacks at a much better rate than the previous battle, until he passed the attack that he was defeated on, with just a bit over half of his health left.

 

“I CAN GET PISCES TO NOT COME FOR YOUR SOUL,” Papyrus stated.

 

“Just saying, but why did he repeat all of his dialogue from the previous fight up until now?” Chara asked, furrowing her brow to think of an explanation.

 

“Dunno, maybe he just wants me to know how far into the FIGHT I’ve gotten compared to the last encounter?” Frisk guessed. He flattened himself to get out of the way of an incoming attack, SPAREing Papyrus when it became his turn again.

 

“THE EMPRESS WILL LAUD ME FOR MY BRAVERY AND ‘CONVERSION’ OF A GOOD HUMAN!” Papyrus said, sending attacks that moved up and down  _ while moving forward _ .

 

“Holy heck!” Frisk shouted, squeezing himself into a ball to fit in a gap while avoiding the moving attacks.

 

“I’m starting to think that he is becoming a little… overconfident in your ability to survive his attacks,” Chara deadpanned.

 

“No kidding,” Frisk replied, landing on the ground.

 

“I WILL FINALLY HAVE A ‘FRIEND’, TO TRUST, AND TO DO A LOT OF THE THINGS THAT FRIENDS WOULD TYPICALLY DO TOGETHER,” Papyrus stated, holding a hand to his chestplate.

 

Frisk stopped where he was, frowning. “Wait, you don’t have any friends?” His stopping resulted in a bone hitting him straight in the face.

 

“Seriously?” Chara said skeptically. “Just a few turns ago, he was looking forward to dating you, yet you’re distracted by his mention of not having any friends?”

 

“Not now,” grumbled Frisk, jumping over a sneakily-placed bone.

 

“Okay then. Later,” Chara said teasingly.

 

“YOU’LL BECOME MY BESTEST FRIEND! BUT… WILL YOU TRULY BE GLAD FOR IT?” Papyrus questioned, frowning slightly.

 

“Okay. Wow, that just got really deep in about five seconds,” Chara stated incredulously, crossing her arms. “Guess he’s got some level of self-awareness in that skull of his.”

 

“Go figure,” Frisk smiled, then looked at Chara as the attack ended. “And that was rude.”

 

“SOMEONE LIKE YOU IS REALLY RARE… AND THE DATE MIGHT BECOME AWKWARD…” Papyrus said, gaining a sad smile.

 

“There’s the date line again,” Chara said, pointing a finger at Frisk. “Knew he would bring it back up eventually.”

 

“Be quiet!” Frisk shouted to Chara, face reddening in clear embarrassment. He was immensely regretting his attempt at throwing off Papyrus. Chara, on the other hand, was revelling in his embarrassment.

 

“AFTER I HAVE TO ‘CAPTURE’ YOU,” Papyrus looked slightly sad. More bones sprung up around the combatants.

 

“It’s going to be awkward for me either way,” Frisk grit through his teeth.

 

“And it’s all your fault!” Chara gleefully ended, moving out of the way of the last bone.

 

“URGH… I’M NOT GOING TO THINK ABOUT THAT NOW! JUST ALLOW YOURSELF TO GET CAPTURED FOR NOW!” Papyrus pleaded slightly.

 

“Why don’t you-” Chara began to say, but Frisk held up his hand to her.

 

“Can’t talk more right now, gotta concentrate on the fight,” Frisk stage whispered to the dead girl.

 

Said-girl huffed, turning away from Frisk. “Says the boy who talks with his dead companion every chance he gets.”

 

“GET CAPTURED, OR BE PREPARED TO FACE… MY SPECIAL ATTACK!!!” Papyrus said, attacks getting slightly stronger.

 

Frisk was caught unaware with the stronger attack along with another mention of a ‘special attack’, and got down to a single hit point. Chara just gave him a look of ‘I told you so’. He returned it with a scowl, thankfully turned away from Papyrus.

 

He lost consciousness as Papyrus was talking, and before being picked up.

 

* * *

  
  


“Ow,” Frisk groaned, rubbing the area he was hit before being placed on this bed.

 

“You know, it’s not good to act as stubborn as you are being right now,” Chara said, crossing her arms. “By the way, you weren’t out for as long as last time; only about fifteen minutes.”

 

“I prefer the term ‘determined’,” Frisk said, swinging his legs off of the bed and grabbing the new note that Papyrus left.

 

_ “HUMAN, I AM SORRY I HAD TO CAPTURE YOU AGAIN! I HOPE THIS DOES MAKE YOUR OPINION OF ME ANY LOWER! I KNOW YOU WANT TO CONTINUE, BUT YOU’LL HAVE TO WAIT A WHILE FOR THAT TO HAPPEN. THOROUGHLY BONETROUSLED, PAPYRUS.” _

 

Frisk unceremoniously shoved the note into his pocket, but then Chara shoved him back onto the bed. “You should rest up for a bit.”

 

“What? Why?” Frisk asked, pushing himself back into a sitting position.

 

“Because. I don’t know how it works, but your HP will go above the maximum, up to half of your health over the maximum,” Chara says, putting her hands on her hips. “The fastest anyone can get it over is a few minutes, and can only happen if you know that a FIGHT is to happen in your near future.”

 

Frisk took an expression of annoyance before flopping himself back onto the bed. “Why didn’t you tell me this BEFORE I started heading through Snowdin?”

 

“You were rushing through Snowdin too fast for me to convince you otherwise,” Chara shrugged. “Besides, I kind of forgot about it until now… What?! I’m allowed to forget things!” She added defensively.

 

“Yeah yeah yeah,” Frisk waved her off, pulling his legs up to the bed. “Wake me in a couple of minutes, then.”

 

“Aren’t you going to take off your boots first?” Chara asked, giving a face of disgust.

 

“Nah, it’ll be faster to get up this way,” the boy replied, closing his eyes.

 

One minute passed. Two minutes. “Okay, Frisk. Get your lazy butt up. Let’s go,” Chara said. Frisk made groggy groans. “Okay, I’ll have to do THIS to get you out of bed!” She grabbed his arm from under the covers, giving a sharp yank to the floor. Frisk yelped, tumbling to the floor.

 

“Ow,” he said, rubbing his arm. “Okay, I’m up,” he began putting on the coat. Suddenly, he got an idea. “Chara,” he began. “Can you help me with the FIGHT this time?”

 

Chara raised her eyebrow. “How would I? You know that I can’t actually do anything to the attacks, right?”

 

“Yes you can!” Frisk persisted, putting on his mittens. “You slowed down the bone attacks earlier,” he smirked at another memory. “Not to mention that you kept slowing down the ball with my game of catch with Dad before Flowey suggested leaving,” he frowned.

 

“Oh,” Chara said, slightly rubbing her arm for not realizing it. “Why didn’t you remind me then?”

 

“I was being attacked, remember?” Frisk replied, finally leaving the room after making sure he had enough healing items. He was surely going to use them this time.

 

He marched out the door, back to Papyrus. He stopped where he was once he got in front of Papyrus, puffing his chest out in an attempt to look braver.

 

“BACK AGAIN, EH? I SUPPOSE THAT COULD BE MY FAULT. I KNOW THAT HUMANS AND THEIR SOULS HAVE LOTS OF DETERMINATION. FIGURATIVELY AND LITERALLY, RESPECTIVELY. BUT YOU HAVE TO STOP SOMETIME!” Papyrus stated, beginning the third FIGHT.

 

True to her words, Frisk had thirty health rather than his normal twenty, and Chara was reaching every bone she could, allowing Frisk enough time to clear them, and by the time he got to the attack he was only at roughly half health. He split a bisicle into half, shoving one half into his mouth and the other into his pocket, hoping it won’t become all sticky.

 

“NOT TOO LONG AND I WILL USE THAT SPECIAL ATTACK!!!” Papyrus shouted.

 

“What do you think his special attack will be?” Frisk asked Chara, crouching before jumping.

 

“Well, considering that he’s a skeleton, I’d say that he will use a blaster,” Chara said matter-of-factly. “And considering the fact that he seems to be a part of the Gaster family, you’re pretty much doomed.”

 

“Wait, blaster?!” Frisk yelled at Chara, who only shrugged in response.

 

“THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE… BEFORE MY SPECIAL ATTACK!!!” Papyrus warned.

 

“Yeah, blaster,” Chara said, then put a finger to her chin. “Now that I think of it, I did know a member of the Gaster family when I was still alive.”

 

“Great, and now I’ll be blasted to, like, one health point by… whoever his relationship to him is,” Frisk grumbled.

 

“BEHOLD… MY SPECIAL ATTACK!!!” Papyrus said, Frisk flinching. When he heard nothing, Frisk looked back to see a dog chewing on a bone. “WHAT THE HECK! THAT’S MY SPECIAL ATTACK! HEY! YOU STUPID DOG! DO YOU HEAR ME?! STOP MUNCHING ON THAT BONE!!! HEY!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! COME BACK HERE WITH MY SPECIAL ATTACK!!! … OH WELL. I’LL JUST USE SOME REALLY COOL ATTACKS INSTEAD.”

 

“Phew,” Frisk said, wiping off imaginary sweat from his forehead.

 

“Aww, I wanted to watch you get blasted to smithereens,” Chara mock-pouted.

 

“Bring it on, Papyrus!” Frisk shouted, smiling the entire time.

 

“HERE’S AN ABSOLUTELY NORMAL ATTACK, INCLUDING SOME OF MY BROTHER’S ATTACKS,” Papyrus sighed.

 

Frisk jumped through the first few sets of bones, but was surprised when the next set of bones contained some… red bones? These bones did not act like the others, instead trying to keep themselves underneath him at all times. Papyrus just sent several more bones, becoming more frustrated with how the red ones were acting.

 

“NO, YOU STUPID BONES! YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KEEP YOURSELVES UNDER HIM, THAT COMPLETELY RUINS THE POINT OF THE ATTACK!” Papyrus said. Several more red bones gathered underneath Frisk just as a bone on a skateboard passed under him. “NO! YOU COULD HAVE MESSED HIM UP! DO YOU REALLY WANT ME TO UNSUMMON YOU AND GIVE YOU BACK TO SANS?!” Papyrus shouted at the bones.

 

In response, one of the red bones flew up to him and hit him on the top of his skull with an audible and comically-sounding ‘bonk!’, leaving Papyrus with eyes bugging out of his sockets.

 

Frisk and Chara began giggling, but Frisk’s abruptly ended when he noticed the field of bones coming straight at him. With all of his might, he jumped as high as he could… and continued floating upward when he noticed a massive bone. He hoped he could clear it as he tucked his legs close.

 

Once over the bone, gravity kicked back in, causing Frisk to fall to the ground as a tiny bone arrived. “Oh no!” Chara said dramatically, cupping her mouth while grinning. “You won’t be able to dodge this attack!” Frisk smiled back at her, stepping over the single bone.

 

“WELL...! 'HUFF' IT'S CLEAR... YOU CAN'T! 'HUFF' DEFEAT ME!!! YEAH!!! I CAN SEE YOU SHAKING IN YOUR BOOTS!!! THEREFORE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ELECT TO GRANT YOU PITY!! I WILL SPARE YOU, HUMAN!!! NOW'S YOUR CHANCE TO ACCEPT MY MERCY,” Papyrus said, extending his MERCY.

 

“I don’t want to FIGHT you anymore,” Frisk said, SPAREing Papyrus as well.

 

“NYOO HOO HOO…” Papyrus said, turning around. “I CAN’T STOP A HUMAN AS DETERMINED AS YOU! YOU’LL JUST CONTINUE ON WITHOUT ME! AND MY LONELINESS WILL REMAIN THE SAME DURING WORK!”

 

“Do you maybe,” Frisk began, twisting his boot toes into the snow. “Want to be friends?”

 

Papyrus turned back to Frisk. “REALLY?! YOU WANT TO FRIENDS, WITH ME??? WELL THEN… I GUESS I’LL JUST UN-CAPTURE YOU!” he responded, cupping his jaw in excitement. “WOW!!! I HAVE A FRIEND! AND WHO EVER KNEW THAT ALL I HAD TO DO WAS GIVE THEM CLEVER PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT?!”

 

“Well, they were fun,” Frisk said. Chara gave a half-shrug in partial agreement.

 

“NOW, YOU’RE PROBABLY WONDERING HOW TO GET BACK TO THE SURFACE,” Papyrus began. “ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS REACH THE END OF THE CAVERN! THEN, YOU WILL NEED TO CROSS THE BARRIER, THE MAGICAL SEAL KEEPING US TRAPPED HERE! ANYTHING CAN ENTER, BUT NOTHING CAN LEAVE… UNLESS THEY HAVE A POWERFUL SOUL. LIKE YOU!”

 

“Don’t tell him this, but he’s kind of wrong about that part,” Chara whispered into Frisk’s ear, who frowned.

 

“THAT’S WHY THE EMPRESS WANTS ALL HUMANS! USING THEIR SOULS TO BREAK THE BARRIER, SO WE MONSTERS WILL BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THE SURFACE,” his expression suddenly turned worried. “BUT IN ORDER TO PASS, YOU’LL HAVE TO PASS THROUGH THE EMPRESS’S CASTLE. THE EMPRESS OF ALL MONSTERS. SHE’S… WELL. SHE’S VERY INTENSE AND HONORABLE! EVERYONE GETS INSPIRED BY HER, WHETHER OR NOT IF THEY AGREE WITH HER! I AM CERTAIN IF YOU PRETEND TO BE WEAK, SHE WON’T ATTACK YOU LONG ENOUGH FOR YOU TO PASS THROUGH THE BARRIER. ANYWAY, THAT’S ENOUGH TALKING! I’LL BE AT HOME BEING A COOL FRIEND! FEEL FREE TO STAY OVER AFTER THE DATE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!” he finished, leaping over Frisk’s head.

 

Frisk looked at Chara, who only shrugged. “Hey, don’t look at me,” she smirked. “Go and have that date with him.”

 

Frisk’s face reddened with embarrassment, and began to walk back towards Papyrus’s house.

 

* * *

  
  


The date was… interesting, to say the least, but at least Frisk had fun. He started with looking around Papyrus’s room, but the most interesting thing he spotted was a golden flower, to which Papyrus claimed ‘was from a friend, who knew a lot about gardening’. The date went by, including nearly-frozen spaghetti and Papyrus donning clothing that he called ‘his battle body’. It ended with Papyrus confessing that he was only doing the date to humor Frisk, and wanted to let Frisk down softly, for he wasn’t truly interested in him that way.

 

That was how Frisk got into his current position of watching a television show starring a box on a wheel for the past few hours. Chara was using her ghostly advantage of weighing nothing to sit on the couch arm while Papyrus was preparing a late dinner, around eight in the evening to be precise.

 

The sound of the front door opening with a rush of cold air occurred, so the two children looked in the direction.

 

There were two skeletons wearing lab coats, one short and one tall. The hung up their coats, before heading to Papyrus.

 

“GOOD EVENING TO YOU!” Papyrus shouted at the two, continuing to cook.

 

“Good evening to you, Papyrus,” the tall skeleton replied to Papyrus, voice eloquent. “How was your day?”

 

“IT WENT GREAT! I EVEN MADE A NEW FRIEND, AND AM HAVING HIM STAY OVER FOR THE NIGHT,” Papyrus exclaimed, tapping his wooden spoon against the spot.

 

“huh, you didn’t mention that the friend happened to be the human,” the short one- no, Sans, said, pointing in Frisk’s direction while tapping on the taller skeleton’s arm.

 

Chara gasped when the taller one’s face turned toward Frisk, recognizing the face, even with a new crack running above his right socket. “It’s Ghastly!”

 

“Ah, nice to meet you, Frisk,” he replied, holding out his hand to Frisk.

 

“How do you know my name, Mr. Ghastly?” Frisk asked, shaking the skeleton’s hand.

 

The tall skeleton blinked a couple times, before chuckling. “Where did you hear that name? But first, it’s WingDing or Gaster, and I know your name because Ball Game sends us such information upon first hole, and I’ve got to say, congratulations on the red flag.”

 

“DINNER IS READY, BROTHER, UNCLE, AND HUMAN FRIEND!” Papyrus declared, bringing a pot of what appeared to be macaroni to the table along with a plate of garlic bread.

 

“Wait, so you’re their uncle?” Frisk asked Gaster.

 

Gaster nodded. “I was their caretaker, for there was no one else for them, though they do prefer to live here, with me,” he put some of the elbow-shaped noodles onto his plate, grabbing a piece of garlic bread. “Now, I’ve got to ask; where did you hear the name ‘Ghastly’? I have not heard that since the former prince and princess were alive,” he sighed in memory. “In fact, it was princess Chara that gave me the nickname.”

 

Chara squealed in delight as Frisk began to eat his food. “He remembers me! We were all in the same class!”

 

“I don’t know why I said that,” Frisk said, taking a bite of his macaroni. He looked at Sans, then did a double-take. “Are you tired?”

 

“don’t think so, kiddo. why do you ask?” Sans replied. “this has got to be the best macaroni you’ve ever made, papyrus.”

 

“NYEH HEH HEH! ONLY THE BEST PASTA SHALL BE MADE WITH THE ADDITION OF MY NEWEST FRIEND!” Papyrus beamed.

 

“Your eyes have these red rings around them, about as thick as a needle,” Frisk continued, pointing at said places.

 

Sans made a sound like he was choking a bit on his food, before standing up, appearing to sweat a bit. “just a sec, gotta check something at the lab,” he said abruptly, vanishing from sight.

 

Frisk and Chara shared a glance before Frisk continued to eat. Papyrus and Gaster apparently were used to this behavior of Sans, because they just kept eating and making small talk.

 

A few minutes later, Sans came back, lacking the sweat, but red rims still visible, but only slightly. He sat back down, eating like nothing happened.

 

“BY THE WAY, SANS. I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO ASK OF YOU,” Papyrus said, putting a napkin to his nonexistent lips.

 

“i’d be all ears if i had any, but ‘sup, bro?” Sans asked, beginning to nibble (how?) on his garlic bread.

 

“SEVERAL OF THE BONE ATTACKS YOU LENT ME REMAINED UNDER THE HUMAN DURING OUR FIGHT,” Papyrus began.

 

“yeah? told you that they have a mind of their own,” Sans replied, shrugging.

 

“ONE OF THEM THEN ATTACKED ME, BY HITTING ME IN THE HEAD!” Papyrus said. Then, a slight expression of surprise appeared. “OH MY GOD, SANS! THE BONE WAS CALLING ME A BONEHEAD! AUGH!” he held his (thankfully cleaned) plate to his forehead.

 

The rest of the meal went by smoothly, the three skeletons having small talk, before a small yawn from Frisk made them stop. “I think it is time for our little human friend to sleep,” Gaster said, standing up from his chair. “Humans require more time for sleep than skeletons, you know.”

 

“EXCEPT SANS,” Papyrus said, looking at Sans suspiciously.

 

“Regardless, it is time for them to turn in for the night,” Gaster said, going over to Frisk’s chair.

 

“I’m not tired,” Frisk whined, punctuating his sentence with a loud yawn.

 

“You will be using the guest room tonight. Would you like me to show you where it is?”

 

Frisk gave a slightly insulted look. “I’m not six. Besides, I already know where it is,” Frisk said, walking to said door. “Okay, I may be a little tired, then.”

 

He walked into the guest room, letting Chara in before shutting the door. He walked to the bed, hopping onto it and untying his boots. “Wow, that thing with Sans is kind of mysterious,” Chara said, hopping onto the other side of the bed and turning to Frisk.

 

“Yeah, yeah,” Frisk said, rubbing his eyes and finally taking off his boots, pulling his legs to the bed. As he laid down, an idea popped into his head. “Hey Chara?”

 

“Hmm?” Chara hummed, looking at Frisk.

 

“Guess what,” Frisk said, but before she could ask what, he wrapped his arms around her in a bear hug, pinning her arms to her side.

 

“F-Frisk!” Chara shouted, struggling against the boy’s grip around her, and her cheeks rapidly reddening in flustering. “What’s this for?!”

 

“This is for suddenly waking me up a couple days ago and calling me a lazybutt,” Frisk stated, closing his eyes.

 

A couple minutes later, while Chara was still struggling out of Frisk’s hug, Frisk was fast asleep, and Chara finally got out of it. “Doesn’t change the fact that you are one, lazybutt,” she said to him, turning away from him. She closed her eyes, and began to fall asleep.


	7. A Change in Information

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk has some breakfast with the Gaster family, and gets a few bits of information about the Underground

“You are a lazy butt! You are a lazy butt!” Chara chanted as she marched around the guest bedroom. Frisk only curled into his blankets further, trying to get back to sleep to no avail.

 

“Can you please stop?” he whined, looking at the clock. “It’s seven in the morning, and you’ve been doing that for the past… hour or whatever. Just stop for an hour, okay?”

 

“That only further proves my point as you being a lazy butt,” Chara stated in a sing-song voice, but at least she stopped the chanting.

 

“How does that prove your point? I don’t know what makes me a lazy butt,” Frisk said, finally sitting up in the bed in annoyance.

 

“I’m not going to tell you something that is very obvious,” the dead girl teased.

 

Frisk did not answer, but an idea began to creep up in his mind. “I think I know how to get you to stop,” he muttered to himself. He pulled the blankets off of his legs.

 

“Looks like Lazybutt is getting off his butt,” Chara said, pointing in Frisk’s direction. She then frowned, scrunching her eyebrows. “What are you doing?”

 

Frisk was standing on top of the bed, crouching slightly. “THIS IS REVENGE!” he yelled, jumping straight at Chara.

 

Chara yelped, holding her arms up to shield herself as the boy landed on top of her with an audible thud. Glad that she didn’t require air and couldn’t really be squashed, she felt the nonexistent air leave her when Frisk’s arms wrapped around her once again in a bear hug, this time also using his legs to help trap her.

 

Chara sputtered, face reddening in embarrassment as Frisk held on tightly. “Frisk!” she shouted, who only slightly flinched due to proximity. “You can’t do this!”

 

“Why not?” Frisk asked, grinning slightly.

 

“Because… you’re a boy!” she reasoned, just wanting him to let go of her.

 

“So?” Frisk replied, grin becoming larger.

 

“And I’m a girl!” Chara shouted, beginning to struggle.

 

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Frisk replied cheekily, smirking.

 

“Ugh!” Chara said, struggling even harder.

 

A few seconds later, the sound of the door opening made the two children stop where they were. They both looked at the door.

 

“HUMAN, I HEARD A THUDDING SOUND AND SHOUTING COME FROM THIS VERY ROOM. I HOPE THAT NOTHING-” Papyrus began, but stopped short, blinking at the sight of what appeared to be Frisk alone on the floor in a hugging position. “HUMAN, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE.”

 

“I was, um, jumping onto my imaginary friend and bear hugging her to make her be quiet and to show her how much I love her as a friend?” Frisk said, unsure if Papyrus would believe him.

 

Papyrus’s eye sockets began to sparkle in joy. “YOU HAVE AN IMAGINARY FRIEND?! WOWIE! WILL YOU INTRODUCE ME TO HER? PLEASE?”

 

Frisk and Chara looked at each other. Chara just sighed. “Just do it. It’s not like it’ll be of any harm. Besides,” she smirked. “Either way, you’ll have to let go of me.”

 

Frisk sighed, getting off of Chara and helping her up. Chara turned to Papyrus, holding out her hand to him. “Greetings, Papyrus. I am his ‘imaginary friend,” she said, shooting an ‘are you serious’ glare at Frisk.

 

Frisk shrugged back at Chara, then led Papyrus’s hand to Chara’s, relaying what she said to the excited skeleton. Papyrus miraculously managed to grasp where her hand was, shaking it. “NICE TO MEET YOU, IMAGINARY FRIEND. I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS, ANOTHER ONE OF THE HUMAN’S FRIENDS.”

 

“Yeah…” Chara muttered, unsure on how to respond. She was glad he couldn’t actually see or hear her.

 

“BY THE WAY, HUMAN,” Papyrus said, turning toward Frisk once he let go of the ghost’s hand. “AS PER TRADITION IN SNOWDIN, IF YOU HAVE ANYONE FROM OUT-OF-TOWN STAY FOR THE NIGHT, YOU HAVE TO TAKE THEM OUT FOR BREAKFAST THE MORNING,” he turned back to Chara’s general direction. “WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME AS WELL?”

 

“It’s not like I have a choice,” Chara said, shrugging.

 

“She said that she would like to go!” Frisk said, beaming at Papyrus’s mention.

 

“GREAT!” Papyrus said, straightening himself up. “WE WILL ALL LEAVE IN FIVE MINUTES! BE SURE TO BE READY BY THEN!” Papyrus, dashing out of the bedroom.

 

Frisk walked to the door, closing it, before taking out his phone and dialing some numbers. “What are you doing?” Chara asked, sitting on the bed.

 

“Just want to call Mom and Dad,” Frisk replied, holding the device to his ear.

 

The phone on the other end picked up. “Greetings, this is Toriel speaking,” Toriel said.

 

“Hi Mom,” Frisk said into the phone, unsure on what more to say.

 

“Oh! Hello, Frisk. I did not expect you to be calling us this early in the morning,” Toriel replied. “What brings you to call right now? I hope you slept somewhere well, though.”

 

“Oh, well I slept at a new friend’s house last night. He and his family are all really nice, too,” Frisk said, smiling. “We’re going out for breakfast in a bit.”

 

There were the sounds of the phone being moved around, and Asgore’s voice came through the receiver. “Ah, well tell us about the new friend you slept over at.”

 

“Well, he’s a tall skeleton who’s really nice. And loud,” Frisk began. “He’s also a part of the, uh, Royal Guard. But he doesn’t want to hurt me.”

 

“I’m going to take a guess and ask: is the skeleton’s name, by chance, Papyrus? Of the Gaster family?” Asgore asked, a tone that suggested that he already knew the answer.

 

“Yes. Do you know them?” Frisk asked, slightly excited to know.

 

“Yes, we do. He visits the Ruins occasionally, along with his brother. They make quite good company,” Asgore said. “When you see him next, please do tell him that I hope that his flower is doing well.”

 

“I will try to remember to tell him that,” Frisk said, smiling. “I kinda miss you too, though,” he muttered.

 

The phone made sounds of being shuffled around. “Well, I’m afraid that we’ll have to cut this call short, my child,” Toriel said. “Take care! And remember, you’re welcome to stop by at any time you want.”

 

“Bye,” Frisk said, needlessly waving his hand. “And I’ll remember that.”

 

The connection ended with a click, Frisk pulling the phone away with a smile. “You know,” Chara began. “Those things weren’t around in my lifetime, but even I know that they won’t see you waving.”

 

Frisk shoved his phone into his pocket, beginning to pull on his coat. “How long ago did you die?”

 

“That depends,” Chara said, tapping her chin in thought. “What year is it on the Surface?”

 

“It is 2018 up there,” Frisk said, then frowned. “Wait, how did you know that it was called a camera back at the Ruins exit?”

 

“First, then I died roughly five-hundred years ago. As for your other question…” she trailed off, unsure and shrugging. “I just… somehow knew what it was called.”

 

The bedroom door opened, revealing Gaster. “I am only checking to see if you are ready, child. We are all ready to go when you are.”

 

“Just a sec, need one more thing,” Frisk replied, pulling his mittens onto his hands. “There! Let’s go!”

 

Frisk jogged out to the living room, passing Gaster, and was turning to go to the front door when a bony hand closed around his shoulder. Frisk turned to see Sans holding his arm with a slightly amused expression. “we’re not going to be walking there, kiddo.”

 

Frisk tilted his head. “Then how will we get there?”

 

Sans chuckled. “well, this is how we’ll get there.”

 

Frisk suddenly became dizzy with vertigo, nearly losing his balance as his vision changed from the living room to what appeared to be a diner? He glanced around, and what he saw was a lot of Monsters and booths. Looking beside himself, Frisk saw Chara, who was stumbling as well, Sans, Papyrus, and Gaster.

 

“welp, take a seat everyone. by the way, kid, this is grillby’s diner, so you know,” Sans said. Frisk climbed into the nearest booth, pulling off his coat and mittens as he did so. The three other skeletons got into the booth as well, with Chara leaning on the table to ease her breathing.

 

A moment later, a Monster, with green flames as their head, walked up to their table, holding a notepad. “… Hello,” it- or rather, she, said to the group in a whispery voice. “Welcome to Grillby’s Diner and Bar. How may we serve you…?”

 

“Greetings, Fuku. We would like the usual drinks, along with a cup of milk for our young guest,” Gaster said, gesturing toward Frisk.

 

Fuku leaned over, nearly (unknowingly) leaning into Chara. “… Oh, a human… Well, considering that all of Snowdin has heard only good things about you, then you are eligible for the Good Human Discount…”

 

“I also got the red flag in Ball!” Frisk triumphantly added, crossing his arms proudly.

 

The fire elemental simply nodded, taking a small circular device from her pocket and unhinging the top, and pulling out four menus from it. “… Here are your menus… We will be back shortly with your drinks, so please be ready to make your order…” she said, placing the menus in front of everyone before walking off.

 

Frisk looked at Sans when he opened his menu to the breakfast items section. “How could you do that?” he asked.

 

“do what? there are lots of things i can do,” Sans replied, flicking through the menu.

 

“The, uh, teleporting thing,” Frisk elaborated, finding what he would like to eat.

 

“oh, that,” Sans said, scratching the back of his skull. “well, it is something only those born with an affinity to cyan-colored magic, such as cyan-eyed skeletons like gaster and myself, can perform,” he looked away in thought. “though i’m the only one who could do it to the extent as myself.”

 

Frisk’s eyes widened in excitement. “You and Sans could Pinch?” he asked, looking at Gaster.

 

Fuku came back to the table, carrying two coffees, a tea, and a glass of milk with a bendy straw. “…Here are your drinks… Are you ready to make your orders…?” With everyone nodding, she took out a notepad as everyone, one by one, gave their orders. “… Thank you… Your orders shall be out of the kitchen shortly…” she nodded, turning and going back to the kitchen for their orders.

 

Gaster cleared his non-existent throat. “Please explain to us what you mean by ‘Pinch’, if you will.”

 

“I would like to know that as well,” Chara said, propping herself up on the table with crossed arms.

 

“Well, we call such things ‘Pinching’ because when they do it, the area around them looks like it was pinched into the place they were in,” Frisk explained, blowing bubbles into his milk. “I knew a few kids who could do it, and they were Cyans. They could only do it to places they could see, though…” Frisk trailed off, thinking with a sad frown. “The adults would punish them any time they did it though.”

 

The air in the booth suddenly became very tense, making it feel unable to breathe. “WELL, THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOES NOT NEED SUCH MAGICAL MODES OF TRANSPORTATION TO GET AROUND,” Papyrus stated, clearly wanting to get rid of the oppressive tension. “MY OWN TWO LEGS ARE GOOD ENOUGH TO GET MYSELF ANYWHERE!”

 

“that, papyrus, is true,” Sans nodded, somehow taking a sip of his coffee.

 

The next several minutes passed, the three adults talked amicably with each other while Frisk and Chara mostly looked around Grillby’s more, drinking in the sights. Finally, Fuku came back, along with what appeared to be the fire elemental from behind the counter. Chara moved out of the way, mostly so that she wouldn’t be moved out of the way unintentionally.

 

“… Hello…” the new fire elemental greeted, nodding his head in the general direction of the group.

 

“Greetings, Grillby,” Gaster said, nodding in Grillby’s direction. “How are things going with the diner?”

 

“… Things are going well, my friend…” Grillby replied, clearing his throat. “… We have heard news that the human here has been acting rather well to the Monsters west of Snowdin Town, along with my niece here telling me that they have also managed to get a red flag in Ball…” he pulled out a plate-sized black box, opened it, and began pulling out multiple plates of food, slightly boggling Chara. Lastly, he took out a small red flag from another pocket, placing it next to Frisk’s plate. Ruffling the boy’s hair, he said “Congratulations, young man,” before walking away.

 

“at least he didn’t give me yet another bottle of ketchup this time,” Sans grumbled, picking up his fork and knife before looking at Gaster.

 

“Well, our food is here, obviously,” Gaster said, picking up his own utensils and gesturing at his own breakfast.

 

“‘Bone’ appetit! Hee hee hee,” Chara shouted, giggling at her own joke as the group began to dig into their meal.

 

* * *

  
  


“Goodbye for now, Frisk,” Gaster said as the group left Grillby’s, with Frisk waving at each skeleton as they headed off to the east. Frisk turned around smiling, and began to walk off in the opposite direction.

 

“Where are you going?” Chara asked, walking alongside him. “I thought you wanted to head to Waterfall as soon as possible?”

 

“I do,” Frisk replied. “I just want to check out a couple things.”

 

“Like what?”

 

Frisk shrugged one shoulder. “Stuff.”

 

The two children turned to the right, now facing the shop. Frisk grabbed the handle, opening the door, and walked into the shop.

 

The shopkeeper looked in the direction, and when she noticed who her visitor was, she gave him a warm smile. “Hello, human. How can I help you?”

 

Frisk returned with a bright smile. “I just wanted to ask you some things in general.”

 

“Oh! Well in that case, ask away,” the bunny Monster said, crossing her arms over the counter.

 

“Let’s see, uh,” Frisk said, putting a finger to his chin while thinking. “Oh! What are some things to do here?”

 

The bunny sighed. “You want to know what to do here in Snowdin? Grillby's has food, and the library has information… If you're tired, you can take a nap at the inn. It's right next door - my sister runs it. Though, I don’t see why you’re so eager to leave so soon, considering that I’ve heard that Papyrus Gaster has taken a liking to you,” she sighed again in appreciation. “When he’s like that, no amount of prodding will make him let go.”

 

Frisk smiled widely. “What can you tell me about the Gaster family?”

 

The shopkeeper scratched her chin in thought. “Well, I know that two of them are Royal Scientists, and that Papyrus is a Royal Guardsman. The Gasters are said to be the most powerful family of skeleton Monsters in history,” she said, giving a sad smile. “It’s a shame that those three are all that remains of their line. And with skeletons on the decline, it’s hard to see their name surviving past this generation.”

 

“Can you get her to switch the topic? It’s kind of getting a bit too sad,” Chara whispered into Frisk’s ear, who was frowning but gave an almost imperceptible nod.

 

“What can you tell me about Snowdin?” Frisk blurt out, not really paying attention to his words.

 

“Oh, well there’s not much to say about the town’s early history,” the bunny Monster said, apparently glad to switch subjects. “Just that when Monsters finally left Home, the old capital, some of the furry folk decided to settle here. What you should know that, in the time the old King and Queen disappeared, we have remained loyal to what they would’ve done, even when the last human who came through the Underground was very… dusty.”

 

Frisk gulped nervously, feeling nauseous, but he  _ had _ to know what the previous human did. “Wh-what do you mean by ‘dusty’?”

 

The bunny shivered violently out of discomfort. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask that, but here goes; the last human who came through here, roughly thirteen years ago, was covered head-to-toe in the dust of countless Monsters. Very few Monsters from Snowdin were killed, and even though multiple were given near-fatal injuries, they were saved from death, even if they became those ‘amalgamates’ in the process,” she chuckled a bit. “Surprisingly enough, the death count would’ve been much a lot worse if it weren’t for the efforts of Papyrus.”

 

“What?! How?!” Chara shouted, grasping her hair tightly in trying to figure out how Papyrus managed such a feat.

 

“How did he manage to do it?” Frisk asked, also wondering how.

 

“Well, at the time he was just a guardsman-in-training, and when reports of fallen Monsters began to come in, he declared that he was going to locate the person and ‘set them straight’,” the shopkeeper said, shaking her head slowly in memory. “No one could convince him to not go up against them, not even his family. He followed them throughout the forest, trying to convince them to turn away from their path of destruction. Everyone panicked when he announced that he will confront them at the area connecting Snowdin to Waterfall.”

 

“What happened then?” Frisk asked, captured by the story.

 

The shopkeeper appeared to be choosing her wording carefully. “Papyrus’s hand was forced. He faced off against the human for who-knows how long, allowing for the rest of Snowdin to evacuate. Everyone was terrified when the human came out alone, looking dustier,” she then sighed in what sounded to be remembered relief. “Minutes later, Papyrus emerged from the fog, his ‘battle body’ having heavy dents and himself sporting several sizeable fractures, but otherwise relatively okay,” the bunny leaned back a bit. “The human reached the throne room, but even with the deaths of the emperor and empress, Papyrus was awarded for his bravery, with the Captain of the Royal Guard declaring him as a new member.”

 

“Well… that’s cool I guess. For Papyrus, I mean!” Frisk said, pulling up his scarf more. “Well, I’ve got to leave now.”

 

“Bye, now!” the shopkeeper waved at the human boy. “We all believe in you!”

 

Frisk waved back at her as he closed the shop door, allowing Chara to leave the shop first. “Are you going to stop anywhere else, or will you continue to Waterfall?” Chara asked Frisk.

 

“I want to go to the library first, just to see some things,” Frisk announced to her, to which she just sighed.

 

The two walked for a few minutes before they stood in front of the building they wanted. “Here we are. The library,” Chara squinted at the sign for a few seconds. “Or, rather, the Librarby,” she said, shaking her head as Frisk entered the building. “They should really fix the sign.”

 

Frisk was already at some red books before the door closed, Chara barely managing to get in. Frisk grabbed a book and opened it to a random page, Chara muttering something about not wanting to spend all day there.

 

_ “(School Report About Funerals) Monster funerals are kinda cool. When a Monster dies, they turn to dust. The cool part is that we take their dust, and spread it across their favorite item, so that they will live on in it. The closest humans have to this tradition are the mages, who bury their dead in their favorite location, to become part of the place, to give new life.” _

 

Frisk frowned at the entry, not sure on what to think of it. “You should just read one book of each color, so that you won’t spend too much time here,” Chara suggested. “You’ll also get more information that way, right?”

 

Frisk shrugged, putting back the book and pulling out a blue book in the next shelf over.

 

_ “(On Bodies and Magic) Monster bodies are made of mostly dust and magic, while human bodies are mostly made of water. While humans’ physical bodies make them far more powerful than us, they can’t use magic to express themselves. This isn’t to say none can use it, but an equation frequently used is a paintbrush and a hammer; we can express, while they can build.” _

 

“It is true,” Chara stated, crossing her arms. “While humans can’t create bullets, our magic is much more effective on physical things than magical things. It’s useful for doing stuff like holding up supports, or defending against attackers.”

 

Frisk stuck his tongue out at the girl as he took out an orange book and put away the blue book. “I already knew that,” he looked at a random page.

 

_ “(On LOVE) Due to a Monster’s body also acting as their Soul, the less they want to fight, the more their defenses drop. However, gaining LOVE is one counter to it, but when one gains too much, their sanity begins to slip. It is theoretically possible to kill without gaining LOVE, but due to its effects on the mind, it becomes a deadly slippery slope to more than just themselves when gained.” _

 

“Wait, didn’t Flowey say that he gained some LOVE before? But otherwise, that book is kind of not okay for us to read,” Chara said, closing her eyes.

 

Frisk pulled out another book, this one light green. “Yeah, I think he said he kinda went crazy from too much of it… Wonder what it means?”

 

“I do too,” Chara nodded, looking over Frisk’s shoulder.

 

_ “(Monster History Part 2) The War of Monsters and Humans was a relatively quick conflict, lasting only several battles. Monsters were only able to fend for longer than a single, drawn-out battle was due to two factors; humans’ bodies are more vulnerable to bullet attacks when their Souls are exposed, and that, of the relatively few mages who partook in the war, almost all of them were with the Monsters.” _

 

“My great-grandfather was alive at the time of the war,” Chara said, emotion slightly creeping into her voice. “He wanted nothing to do with the actual fighting, even when the last battle took place on his own land,” she shook her head, shooing away the emotion. “There’s one more color of book, then we should leave for waterfall, alright?”

 

Frisk nodded solemnly, not wanting to make his friend anymore sad. Quickly, he put the book away, and took a final book, this one dark green.

 

_ “(The Nature of ‘Soul’) Love, hope, compassion. That’s what people say Monster Souls are made of. However, the absolute nature of ‘Soul’ is unknown. After all, human Souls are shown to not need these, for Determination is the only thing their Souls need, even to persist after bodily death. Other than that, their Souls run on six other traits as well, in varying amounts.” _

 

“That was… interesting,” Frisk said, closing the book and putting it away.

 

“I know, but can we go now? Please?” Chara said. “Let’s go to Waterfall.”

 

Frisk sighed, looking down. “Fine.”

 

The two left the building, needlessly waving at it. A smile crept onto Frisk’s face.

 

“What are you smiling at?” Chara asked, frowning at the thought of what Frisk was apparently planning.

 

Frisk tapped on Chara’s arm, running ahead. “Race you to Waterfall!” he shouted to her.

 

Chara blinked, standing still for a moment, before the invisible barrier keeping her from being too far from Frisk shoved into her. She regained herself in a second, struggling to get away from the barrier, before getting far enough from it to not risk touching it again.

 

“It’s on!” she shouted, dashing toward Waterfall.

 

* * *

  
  


_ The main plaza of New Home was filled to the brim with various Monsters, all trying to find a spot before the speech Asgore and Toriel were planning begins. _

 

_ Once everyone had found a spot, Asgore raised his arms, signalling everyone to stop their chatter. The silence was so complete that one can hear a pin drop on the ground. _

 

_ Asgore began speaking, voice filled with various emotions. “We regret to inform everyone that, tragically, our adopted daughter Chara has passed away, just this past hour. We were not sure what we would do, much less what Asriel would do, should she pass away.” _

 

_ Monsters cried out in dismay, and many others expressed their sad sympathy using bullet patterns. _

 

_ “However, there is one hope that could possibly get us past this,” Toriel took the floor, wiping tears from her eyes. “When she died, our son… Asriel, took her Soul, and absorbed it, taking her body and crossing through the Barrier with it.” _

 

_ Multiple Monsters gasped out in fear, some even fainted, but others gained hope, knowing Asriel’s personality could potentially save them. _

 

_ Asgore cleared his throat, trying to push back the tide of emotions. “With that being said, we all hope that Asriel will make Chara’s final wishes be met, and that even though she will not be there in person, she will be there in Soul.” _

 

_ “We sincerely hope that he will also find some humans who are willing to help us break free of this mountain, so that we will live beneath the blue skies once again, bask in the warmth of the sun, and have a renewed relations with the humans,” Toriel said, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. _

 

_ “If anyone can convince the humans, it would be Asriel!” one Monster cheered near the front, more Monsters cheering around them. _

 

_ Monsters began shooting bullets into the air, exploding like fireworks. They were all saddened by Chara’s death, but were happy that it would pave the way for a brighter future, both figuratively and literally. Her Soul would not be absorbed in vain. _

 

_ “WE WILL BE FREE!!! WE WILL BE FREE!!! WE WILL BE FREE!!!” the crowd chanted, throwing even more bullets into the air. _

 

_ A pair of canid-shaped blasters fired into the air near the front, the charging sound sounding bittersweet. The whine of the charge-up made the Monsters cheer even louder, even when the source of the blasters, a skeleton the age of Chara with a single crack running down from his left socket to his mouth, lowered his head solemnly, closing his eyes. _

 

_ Asgore and Toriel held each other close, tears streaming from their eyes in both sadness and happiness. _

 

_ “Chara would’ve loved this, seeing everyone happy like this,” Toriel said, wiping some tears away. _

 

_ “Yes,” Asgore nodded. “If… no, WHEN, Asriel comes back, we shall give him a hero’s welcome. One he will be proud of, and one that would’ve made Chara proud of him.” _

 

_ Asgore and Toriel walked off of the stage, Monsters still loudly celebrating what they thought will be their last days underground. _

 

_ They walked toward the throne room, waiting for the moment Asriel returns. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite what happens between Frisk and Chara in the beginning (along with us being Charisk shippers), there will not be any Charisk in the story, for reasons we will reveal sometime in the future of the story
> 
> Frisk is just being a little turd to Chara in that situation

**Author's Note:**

> Any comments are appreciated.


End file.
